We, the Oregon Birding Association board, are very troubled by the events that have taken place over the last 24 hours in response to our statement regarding sexual assault and harassment in birding.
We find many of the messages sent both publicly and privately very disturbing. We condemn any kind of bullying, hate speech, and abusive language, and are taking actions against it. If you have received a private message with bullying of any kind, we urge you to contact us using this form https://oregonbirding.org/contact-oba/. You are also welcome to forward them to me, and I will pass them onto the board.
At our board meeting in December, we began working on updating guidelines and moderation policies for OBOL to create a more inclusive environment and to prevent bullying. Recent events have made it very apparent that this is something that needs to be done sooner rather than later, and we will be working with the moderator to make sure our policies help create a supportive and inclusive forum.
Due to the nature of our organization, policy changes must be discussed and voted on by the whole board. This is a legal process and changes happen slowly. Please bear with us as we work on this, as this is a volunteer job for all of us. Please do not take our silence as support for this kind of behavior. We want to present solid guidelines and want to get consensus for any action we take from our entire board. We invite input from OBOL members and will be releasing our updated guidelines soon.
We appreciate those who have spoken up. We are listening.
