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+# Introduce a new Conduct Team
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+
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+<!--
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+Part of the Carbon Language project, under the Apache License v2.0 with LLVM
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+Exceptions. See /LICENSE for license information.
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+SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0 WITH LLVM-exception
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+-->
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+
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+[Pull request](https://github.com/carbon-language/carbon-lang/pull/####)
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+
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+<!-- toc -->
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+
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+## Table of contents
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+
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+- [Abstract](#abstract)
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+- [Problem](#problem)
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+- [Background](#background)
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+- [Proposal](#proposal)
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+- [Details](#details)
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+ - [Strategy for a sustainable Conduct Team](#strategy-for-a-sustainable-conduct-team)
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+ - [What we are looking for in Conduct team members](#what-we-are-looking-for-in-conduct-team-members)
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+ - [Initial team members](#initial-team-members)
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+ - [Process](#process)
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+- [Rationale](#rationale)
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+- [Alternatives considered](#alternatives-considered)
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+ - [Make no changes](#make-no-changes)
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+ - [Have some overlap between Carbon leads and the Conduct team](#have-some-overlap-between-carbon-leads-and-the-conduct-team)
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+ - [Keep the restriction on new conduct team members accessing prior reports](#keep-the-restriction-on-new-conduct-team-members-accessing-prior-reports)
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+
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+<!-- tocstop -->
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+
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+## Abstract
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+
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+The Carbon Project relied on the three leads to handle conduct concerns
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+initially as it bootstrapped its community team and expertise. We now have an
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+active and effective community lead and team of moderators. Our community lead
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+has worked to train and ramp up a new and independent conduct team.
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+
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+This proposal both provides an overview of the process and hands off conduct
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+handling to the new team! Going forward, we expect routine updates to the
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+conduct team to happen without full proposals as they allow trained folks to
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+rotate in and out of this difficult but essential role on the project.
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+
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+Last but not least, making these changes uncovered a restriction in the Code of
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+Conduct itself that we expect to be problematic to adhere to going forward.
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+While well intentioned, it has a bunch of unanticipated effects that made both
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+current and new conduct teams want to remove it. A related section has had its
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+wording strengthened to try and address the underlying motivation at least
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+partially.
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+
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+## Problem
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+
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+- Our Code of Conduct team is made up of those with the highest power in the
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+ community (Carbon leads), and our current framework does not allow for clear
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+ accountability in terms of their own conduct due to this lack of separation.
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+- The diversity of backgrounds and perspectives is limited among our current
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+ CoC team.
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+- The Carbon leads have limited time and availability to intervene in urgent
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+ and important misconduct situations.
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+
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+So, it is time to build a specialized team to deal with escalations which is not
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+subordinate to the Carbon leads, and is able to handle diverse misconduct
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+escalations in an adequate and timely manner. This means we can recruit and/or
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+train people from diverse backgrounds to handle such escalations for the Carbon
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+community, and provide competent support to the leads, the rest of the
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+moderation team, and everyone else in the community.
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+
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+## Background
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+
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+Our Code of Conduct:
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+https://github.com/carbon-language/carbon-lang/blob/trunk/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
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+
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+Our current CoC team:
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+
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+- Chandler Carruth (@chandlerc on Discord and GitHub)
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+- Kate Gregory (@KateGregory on Discord and GitHub)
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+- Richard Smith (@zygoloid on Discord and GitHub)
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+
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+## Proposal
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+
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+Create a new [Conduct Team](/docs/project/teams/conduct_team.md) as follows:
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+
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+- Recruit and train 5+ potential new conduct team members to deal with
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+ conduct-related escalations on behalf of and for the Carbon community, and
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+ replace the current CoC team as soon as enough members are ready.
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+- We should always have at least 3 conduct team members available to respond
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+ promptly, even factoring in vacations, getting sick, or other normal
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+ disruptions.
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+- Subsequent updates to the exact members will be managed by the new conduct
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+ team themselves, and without full proposals but just PRs to update the
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+ relevant documentation.
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+
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+Also remove a restriction on how reports are shared with new conduct team
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+members going forward (but _not_ retroactively, which would violate our past
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+promise). While this restriction was well intentioned, it isn't a restriction
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+that the conduct team can effectively uphold going forward. For example, it
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+would prevent informing new conduct team members of people banned because of
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+bad-faith reports. We understand that reports are sensitive, and have
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+strengthened our statements around keeping them confidential and only using them
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+as needed.
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+
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+## Details
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+
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+### Strategy for a sustainable Conduct Team
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+
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+The Carbon community needs a **distinct, qualified, empowered, and diverse**
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+Code of Conduct team.
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+
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+This crucial and particularly straining work needs to be shared among the team,
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+so all members get enough support and rest. The proposal is for a member
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+rotation strategy. Carbon's long-term goal should be to have 5+ trained Conduct
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+Team members, so at least 3 are available to discuss and act upon incident
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+reports in a timely and adequate manner.
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+
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+The initial team was recruited by our Community lead and pulls from the current
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+trained moderator pool. We propose that the Conduct team itself is responsible
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+to continue recruiting both new Conduct team members and new moderators to make
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+both efforts sustainable. They will work toward better representation, embracing
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+both broad and intersectional diversity.
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+
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+### What we are looking for in Conduct team members
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+
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+Team members need a track record showing:
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+
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+- Effective and constructive engagement with online, technical, and/or
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+ open-source software communities
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+- Advanced moderation and mediation skills
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+- Intercultural competence
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+- Extensive knowledge of human diversity and systemic discrimination forms
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+- Proficient written English communication skills
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+
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+Other essential things we prioritize for all team members:
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+
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+- Kindness
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+- Thoughtfulness, including while dealing with highly sensitive information
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+- Prioritizing the most vulnerable
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+- Readiness to have uncomfortable conversations, including sparking them
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+- Resilience in the face of abuse, including when becoming a target
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+- Verified Discord and GitHub user account
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+- Readiness to use Google Drive collaboration tools
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+- Readiness to deal with every escalation reported to the team while on duty
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+
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+High-value things we look for but are not necessary:
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+
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+- Personal experience of marginalization in tech communities (for example
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+ based on ability/disability, race/ethnicity, gender identity, lifestyle,
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+ first language, etc.)
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+- Already active in the C++ or Carbon community
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+- Figure of authority in some relevant domain
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+- Non-corporate working experience
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+
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+Note that it is _not_ important to be good at coding or a native English speaker
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+to be effective as a member of the team.
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+
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+### Initial team members
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+
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+- Allison Poppe (@acpoppe on Discord and GitHub)
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+- Céline Dedaj (@celineausberlin on Discord and GitHub)
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+- Christopher Di Bella (@cjdb on Discord and GitHub)
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+- Lexi Bromfield (@lexinadia on Discord and @lexi-nadia on GitHub)
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+- flysand (@flysand on Discord and @flysand7 on GitHub)
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+
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+### Process
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+
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+Selection and sourcing:
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+
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+- Candidates were identified and recruited by our Community lead.
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+- Candidates met with both Carbon leads and the Community lead individually to
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+ make sure everyone was comfortable with the role and responsibilities
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+ involved.
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+
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+Onboarding and support:
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+
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+- New members will have access to coaching and mentoring from the Community
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+ lead as a diversity, equity and inclusion specialist, and general support by
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+ a senior moderation team member.
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+- The project organizes regular informal moderation meetups to learn with and
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+ from each other, including a book club.
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+
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+Exit:
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+
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+- This work tends to be straining and that each person's involvement may only
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+ be temporary.
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+- Both the Carbon leads and the newly formed conduct team will make sure that
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+ individual conduct team members feel safe to leave the team and community
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+ when they need to step out by developing a bench of candidates.
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+
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+## Rationale
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+
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+- [Community and culture](/docs/project/goals.md#community-and-culture)
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+ - The Carbon project needs to have an effective and scalable process for
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+ handling conduct concerns to continue to be an inclusive and welcoming
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+ community.
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+ - Having a separate team focused on these concerns both enables more
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+ specialized skills and can provide a more effective path to hold the
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+ Carbon leads accountable to the same conduct standards.
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+
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+## Alternatives considered
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+
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+### Make no changes
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+
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+This would leave the fundamental problems of both scale and external
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+accountability unresolved.
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+
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+### Have some overlap between Carbon leads and the Conduct team
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+
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+We considered having some amount of overlap between the leads and the conduct
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+team on an ongoing basis. While this would help ensure that the Carbon leads are
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+aware and attending to the community, culture, and conduct needs of the project,
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+it ultimately had a number of disadvantages that made us decide to have a fully
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+separate team:
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+
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+- The Conduct team can and should focus their energy and leverage their
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+ special skills at evaluating conduct challenges. This is different from the
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+ focus, skills, and priorities of the leads.
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+- The leads want to encourage the conduct team to hold the leads own conduct
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+ accountable to the rest of the community, and so want to keep the conduct
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+ team especially as independent as possible.
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+- Even if in practice no conflict arises, having a _visible_ separation is
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+ valuable to the community to build trust.
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+- Having two fully independent groups helps facilitate them each helping,
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+ supporting, empowering, and when necessary, challenging the other.
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+
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+### Keep the restriction on new conduct team members accessing prior reports
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+
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+We considered this, as we are very sympathetic to ensuring community members
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+feel safe making reports, even though the composition of the conduct team might
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+change in the future.
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+
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+Unfortunately, we weren't able to find an effective restriction in this space
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+that still allowed the conduct team to effectively respond to conduct concerns.
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+We have tried to further clarify the expectations on the narrow and limited ways
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+in which it is ever appropriate for this information to be used. Misusing
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+conduct reports, much like other abuses of the Code of Conduct's process, is
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+itself a serious violation of the code.
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Chandler Carruth