Announcing Fedora's Diversity Adviser and Newest Council Member: María “tatica” Leandro!

[Remy DeCausemaker]

Fedorans,

As some of you may recall, Fedora added a new seat to the Fedora
Council for a Diversity Adviser.

It is with great pleasure that we do hereby announce, that this seat
has been filled by long-time Fedora contributor María “tatica”
Leandro!

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Tatica

The Fedora Diversity Adviser acts as a source of support and
information for all contributors and users, especially those from
underrepresented populations, so that issues of inclusion and equity
can be discussed and addressed with planning and strategy.

The Fedora Diversity Adviser will lead initiatives to assess and
promote equality and inclusion within the Fedora contributor and user
communities, and will develop project strategy on diversity issues.
The Diversity Adviser will also be the point of contact for Fedora’s
participation in third-party outreach programs and events.

Full description here: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Diversity_Adviser

To help communicate the responsibilities of the position, we asked
María a few questions about being the Diversity Adviser and any goals
she had as she begins her new position on the Fedora Community Blog.
Here is an excerpt:

---Snip---

Q: How would you describe your position as Diversity Adviser in
relation to the current situation in Fedora?
A: “Since this is the first time Fedora set a position like this, I
see my role more as an informative one. Fedora is a quite diverse
community despite what most people think. We have contributors all
around the world who gather every day to create fantastic software and
spread knowledge; breaking gender, language and distance barriers on a
daily basis.

I also want to serve as a mediator, and let our contributors know that
Fedora has ears for everyone. It’s no secret that being different is
great, but sometimes that puts you on a vulnerable position (as a
Latin American, Spanish Speaker and Female contributor, I can relate
to some), and we want to make sure everyone feels comfortable with the
Fedora family.”

Q: What are some of your goals or vision as Fedora’s Diversity Adviser?
A: “I will start kicking a small survey to know how diverse our
community is, as it’s important to me to understand the reach of our
contributors, their experiences, needs and culture prior to start any
project. It is no secret that to know our future actions we need to
know our numbers, and because we are such a worldwide community,
sometimes we have a huge lack of information about those who
constantly help us be what we are. These actions will allow us to have
a yearly report that will show us more in detail how our progress on
diversity have worked out. This is not a life-time position, so my
main goal is to leave all the needed information ready and available
for those who will follow. Everything in Fedora is a team work, and
the Diversity Adviser position is no different from others.

As we start to learn more from our contributors we will also be able
to create programs to help each minority group. I would like this to
be the second stage of the diversity action plan for 2016. Either
gather once a week to practice English for about half an hour with
some volunteers, to make monthly meetings where one of our
contributors enlighten us with something about their culture; the idea
is to spread knowledge beyond just technology.

Also having a monthly short meeting to discuss those topics that might
need help (revisions on our politics, codes of conduct, an
anti-harassment paper, etc.) or just someone that wants to tell their
experiences. I’m interested into people knowing that Fedora has an
insane cultural background and maybe in a near future, this will open
the eyes of those who think that everything in Fedora is plain blue.”

---Snip---

This interview originally appeared as part of a larger article on the
Fedora Community Blog, titled "Women in Computing and Fedora". You're
encouraged to give it a read and share it with others in and out of
the community!

https://communityblog.fedoraproject.org/women-in-computing-and-fedora/

María is available weekly on Tuesdays at 12:30pm UTC in
#fedora-diversity on Freenode, where you are invited to stop by and
join the conversation.

Congratulations Tatica, and please all join me in giving her a warm
welcome to the Council :)
--RemyD.