[UbuntuWomen] Hi & Best Practices Links & asking for advices

[Natacha Rodriguez]

Hi M!


Thanks for your quick response! and thanks so much for being there! group dynamics is really not my strong point :P

I like your ideas very much! I'll pass tem on to the group admin, I'm sure she'll like them as well.


The question about the bathrooms brought back a lot of memories of previous jobs to my mind, I'm sure it will get the women talking too! Some workplaces here don't have enough women's bathroom since there are so few women there that they consider it a waste of physical space, so we either use the man's one if they allow us, or we go to the nearest women's one (usually one floor left, some times 3 blocks away).


You people made me think a lot today! I'm beginning to question myself about lots of stuff I had for granted, and I like that! 

Thanks :)

Natacha 

PS: I hope you don't mind, I'm ccing the list as I found your answer really helpful and I think it should be shared (not sure about the protocol for this, so I'm sorry if I make a mistake).

________________________________
 De: "marcillapalooza at yahoo.com" <marcillapalooza at yahoo.com>
Para: natachaviviana at yahoo.com.ar 
Enviado: viernes, 1 de junio de 2012 11:37
Asunto: Re: [UbuntuWomen] Hi & Best Practices Links & asking for advices
 

Hello :)

Welcome to the group :) And thanks for asking a question on group dynamics (where I think I can offer more than on techie questions, heh).

First of all, I would take some time to look at "icebreaker" type games, and to change these up so that their use actually encourages creative interaction, rather than just act as a "part of the routine." 

I say this because I've been in situations where every meeting began with "what is your name and what's your favorite ______" which doesn't really bring people out of their shells when used alone.

Once the group is warmed up, what about an exercise that combines gender and engineering in some completely unexpected, maybe even humorous way?

For example, you could present this challenge: "imagine that the government has allotted additional space in the budget for more than the typical two genders of female and male. What would be your recommendation for a redesigned gender system of three or more genders?"

Or maybe: "a referendum has passed that mandates the replacing of gendered restroom and changing facilities with non-gendered facilities over the course of the next 5 years. How would you design temporary facilities that would encourage the use of joint-use areas, while still accommodating single-gendered areas?"

Of course, I'm no engineer, so someone who is could prolly come up with better questions :)

And of course, stay confident, and give the group dynamic time to develop before expecting specific progress as a group, if that makes sense. And good luck!

M :)


----- Reply message -----
From: "Natacha Rodriguez" <natachaviviana at yahoo.com.ar>
To: "ubuntu-women at lists.ubuntu.com" <ubuntu-women at lists.ubuntu.com>
Subject: [UbuntuWomen] Hi & Best Practices Links & asking for advices
Date: Fri, Jun 1, 2012 8:53 am



Hi,

First of all, thanks for making this group :) I've been following the email list for a while now, I think I never introduced myself, my name is Natacha (Naty being the nickname), and I'm a systems engineer from Argentina. I love reading this list, and I really loved the best practices topics, while reading them, I realized how many of my coworkers and former college buddies usually use them, the world would be a better place if those rules could be established in every workplace.

Also, I'd like to ask for some advice, since my college is trying to start a group to deal with gender issues in all kinds of engineering carreers, and they notice that the girls in the group are not making any comments or suggestions, no kind of feedback at all. What can you recommend to inspire them to participate?

Thank you so much in advance!

Naty
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-women/attachments/20120601/835c7eaa/attachment.html>