Diversity & Inclusion - Strategic Planning (March 6/7)

Community LLVM Foundation
1

As previously announced, the LLVM Foundation will be holding strategic planning meetings to set the direction for our programs over the next 3-5 years. The Diversity & Inclusion strategic meeting planning will be held March 6 at 12pm PST, and March 7 at 8:30am PST. See the end of this post for the Zoom details.

What is this meeting?

This meeting is to discuss changes and enhancements to the Diversity & Inclusion program - Community.o. The goals of this program are:

  • To increase participation from a diverse set of individuals to the LLVM Project with code contributions, leadership and volunteer positions, and speakers and attendance at our events.
  • To increase diversity of participation within the field of compilers and tools.
  • To remove barriers and create an inclusive environment for all.
  • To work with other open source organizations who share common goals.

Who should attend?

Any community member interested in this program and helping us achieve our goals. We also invite members of other open source organizations leading similar efforts to join.

What will you discuss during the meeting?

The meeting will go into details about the current program and set goals for the next 3-5 years.

What if I can’t make it?

While we prefer most ideas and question be done through the zoom meeting, we realize that the timing not work for everyone. You may submit your questions or feedback about the program through this google form .

Zoom Details (2 meetings on March 6 and March 7). Please note that you must be logged into Zoom to join the meeting.

March 6, 12pm PST:

Meeting ID: 870 0281 5317
Passcode: 504358
One tap mobile
+16699006833,87002815317#,*504358# US (San Jose)
+16694449171,87002815317#,*504358# US

Dial by your location
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 669 444 9171 US
+1 719 359 4580 US
+1 253 205 0468 US
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 305 224 1968 US
+1 309 205 3325 US
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 360 209 5623 US
+1 386 347 5053 US
+1 507 473 4847 US
+1 564 217 2000 US
+1 646 931 3860 US
+1 689 278 1000 US
+1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
Meeting ID: 870 0281 5317
Passcode: 504358
Find your local number: Zoom International Dial-in Numbers - Zoom

March 7 (8:30am PST):

Meeting ID: 868 7965 5186
Passcode: 688247
One tap mobile
+16694449171,86879655186#,*688247# US
+16699006833,86879655186#,*688247# US (San Jose)

Dial by your location
+1 669 444 9171 US
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 719 359 4580 US
+1 253 205 0468 US
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 507 473 4847 US
+1 564 217 2000 US
+1 646 931 3860 US
+1 689 278 1000 US
+1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 305 224 1968 US
+1 309 205 3325 US
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 360 209 5623 US
+1 386 347 5053 US
Meeting ID: 868 7965 5186
Passcode: 688247
Find your local number: Zoom International Dial-in Numbers - Zoom

2

Just a reminder that the first meeting will be today at 12pm PST.

3

As this is the 4th meeting I have tried to host with no interest, I’m hoping to get community feedback and try to figure out how to move forward. Are the time slots not good? Both time slots are very convenient for the west coast and we have had no one from this region show up.

Is the community as a whole not interested in the strategic planning aspect and just wants to show up for events and volunteer for specific areas but doesn’t care about long term planning?

I’m happy to chat offline if that is preferred.

4

I think one important factor is that the number of “core” developers has shrunk considerably over the years. People moved to other projects (e.g., ML frameworks), and LLVM didn’t manage to find replacements.
Another factor is the layoffs going on. Some compiler teams were affected, and some people are overwhelmed. (I’ve heard this first hand)

Finally, I think the community heath is not great right now. I’ve been personally pushed away by several situations. I’m still around, but in low-power mode.

That said, I did want to attend last week’s meeting on student support, but I fell ill. I’m interested in anything related with students, given that I teach a compiler course for 300+ students per year now. Plus I have master and PhD students working on compilers. There aren’t that many of us around.

5

Personally I’d fold D&I into the broader community health topic, rather than splitting it out. But I’m not super educated about either of those things.

6

I’m sorry that you weren’t able to make last week and I hope you are feeling better.

If you ever want to discuss the situations that have pushed you away, I’m happy to have a conversation about them with you and see if I can help.

I do agree there are some concerns with community health overall and it is upsetting to hear about members of our community being impacted by the layoffs.

7

There is for sure some overlap, but I think D&I is much bigger than just community health. However, there is also the organizational aspect of funds being allocated to different programs, etc. So thats mostly why I separated them.

8

I’d guess it’s some variant of the bystander effect - in that it’s easy to assume that there are others in the community who are better placed to take an active role in these discussions, and so to leave it to them.

I think your description of “What will you discuss during the meeting?” is good, but perhaps people would feel more comfortable in making a decision to attend if there was more clarity on how the meeting would be conducted and what the desired outcomes were. e.g. is the intent to present current thinking and collect feedback? Go round the attendees to help brainstorm? Something else?

I’m speaking as someone who saw these announcements and thought it was fantastic that the Foundation is trying to get broader input - but also didn’t make time to join the meetings so far. I don’t know my thoughts are representative of others, or it’s just me!

Especially if there aren’t successful online meetings ahead of then, perhaps it makes sense to try this exercise at EuroLLVM in person?

9

Thank you for the feedback.

I think I was trying to not influence the audience by pitching a bunch of ideas or thoughts that I had up front but to just recap what we have done so far and how it impacts the community. There is a short slide deck that I have where we would spend 10 minutes going over that (or less if I could get away with it) and then focus on brainstorming ideas on how to improve based upon the success metrics we hope to achieve. I expected people who attend would have some vested interest - Ie. for grants and scholarships… it might be academics who have students working on LLVM, etc. Those who attended D&I, hoped would have attend other Community.o workshops and have some vested interest in growing the program.

Yes, I could repeat some of this at EuroLLVM, but I was hoping to get a less distracted audience by making it separate. But will consider the idea.

I’ll probably make some adjustments for the next 2 meetings, but I’m also trying to decide where is my time best spent. Hopefully those that are interested in attending can answer the poll for the next week so I can gauge if the meetings will be attended or not.

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10

I think slightly fleshing out the description of the meeting to include something like this might help clarify how it will work. Whether it makes a difference or not in how many attend I don’t know - but it couldn’t hurt to try.

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