COVID-19 and Maintainers
Dear all,
We’ve been thinking a lot about all of you, the members of The Maintainers community as well as all of the maintainers out there keeping our world going during this startling and troubling moment. We know that members of our community are busy maintaining right now, but we also know many of you are eager for a place to share your ideas and experiences.
We would love to hear thoughts, questions, proposals, and provocations from any and all, but here are some initial thoughts we’ve had about relating The Maintainers values, which you can find here, to the tribulations of COVID-19:
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Care
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Acknowledge the impact that the pandemic is having on you.
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Bear witness and acknowledge the impact the pandemic is having on your family, friends, colleagues, neighbors.
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Remember that there are many maintainers out there facing different circumstances in the outbreak.
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Research
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If COVID has raised questions about infrastructures, maintenance and maintainers, share those questions below (or join the listserv here).
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We can commit to addressing those questions one way or another:
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Virtual roundtables
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Future conference programming
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Listserv discussion thread
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Connecting to other communities working on and thinking about related issues
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Or through invited posts by experts that can speak to your questions directly
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Capacity
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This is an area where everyone is struggling right now.
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Accept that COVID19 will continue to absorb our attention and our energy in ways that limit productivity. This is okay.
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This forced turn inward towards ourselves, our families, and our communities, combined with the forced slow down of the normal pace of activity, could have lasting impacts on how capitalistic societies assign value to people and things. We should seek to shape these changes to be positive ones where we can.
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As we said, we’d be delighted to hear from you. But most of all, we want to send you our love and care.
Andy, Jess, and Lee, Co-Directors of The Maintainers