The Working Group Effectiveness Task Force suggested an Ombudspeople process for Working Group Effectivess Topics. These Ombudspeople could also support the topics of Professional Working Environment (PWE) and Code of Conduct related issues.
Ombudspeople can be approached by any W3C attendee, chair, team member, AB, TAG, AC, participant, member (or otherwise) anonymously with any comment related to Working Group Effectivess Topics, Professional Working Environment (PWE) or Code of Conduct.
The comment can be a complaint, a general comment, a possible issue, question, etc. The conversation with the ombudsperson MUST remain anonymous and not be recorded or relayed to any other party.
The Ombudsperson MAY offer advice, they MAY encourage a certain action, but the MUST NOT enforce an action, or aggressively encourage the person who made the comment to take any action if they do not wish.
Standards Body participants can sometimes find themselves suffering from bullying, sexual discrimination, or that a strong personality or set of people are behaving inappropriately to individuals or the standards setting process.
In these instances they should feel able to approach their Working Group Chairs or Team Member; however, this is not always the case for many reasons.
Ombudspeople are a set of people in which the individual can approach anonymously. Given the conversation is anonymous, the individual may feel more inclined to speak up about an incident they otherwise would not have. The Ombusperson can give the indiviudal advice, which may help them solve a problem.
Ombudspeople can be anyone. In the case of W3C it may be beneficial to have people who have some W3C Working and Interest group experience. Ombudspeople can be team members, but not all the Ombudspeople should be team members; it would be wise to have a mix of people who are paid staff of W3C and non paid staff.
It is also wise to have a mixture of genders, nationalities and backgrounds; this means in the case where an individual feels more at ease speaking with someone with a similar set of circumstances to themselves, they are able to do so.
Ombudspeople MUST respect that conversations they have as an Ombudsperson MUST remain anonymous (as long as this does not break any laws of the country in which the conversation was held). Team members MUST respect that violating this rule will come with serious consequences for their employment.
There should be at least three Ombudspeople.
The Ombudspeople process should be promoted at AC meetings, Working Groups meetings and at TPAC at the first available instance. Prior to all these meetings and events the Ombudspeople process should be promoted via an email from the Working Group chairs or the W3C Communications Team.