I also like Mary-Catherine's approach. In a lot of ways interrupting
these things is a physical act that leads or administrators have to be
responsible for; policy alone isn't really enough. Intervention has to
be active, subtle, deflective, and very assertive. Making it apparent to
the helper that you acknowledge their sincere (in most cases, in my
experience) desire to be useful and helpful can be really useful in
itself for navigating and mitigating the awkwardness that many people
hoping to intervene might fear. Of course, don't spend more time on the
grabby mansplainer than the participant.

One thing we always did, in terms of staff and volunteer policy-level
solutions, was show the participant once, then be certain to leave them
to do subsequent work on that module themselves. In the case where there
was only one of that component on the bike, i.e. the front derailer (as
opposed to a brake caliper or lever where you could do one and they
could do the other) the adjustment or repair would be modeled on a
different bike than the one that they were working on. Sometimes if a
broken/maladjusted component wasn't available for that particular job,
we'd deliberately miscalibrate or disconnect the component on another
bike to serve for the demo. But yeah, having a simplistic and crystal
clear policy limiting the circumstances under which you're allowed to
put hands on someone's bike, touch the tools they are using, or
insinuate yourself into a task, can be effective.

~cyclista Nicholas


On 2021-01-19 15:38, Brad Wentworth wrote:
> For myself as a white cis-male volunteer, I try both to follow and to
> model
> the following: rotate through our workstands regularly and in the same
> order, simply asking "do you have any questions?" If the answer is
> "no",
> move on. If "yes", ask questions, offer options, and only use the tool
> yourself as a last resort (eg, if the patron is getting frustrated) and
> then only to show, not do it for them. To prevent hovering, encourage
> the
> volunteer to provide instruction on one discrete task the patron can do
> independently for a few minutes, and then move on to the next
> workstand.
> Instill something like this early and often with new volunteers, and
> emphasize giving patrons space to do their own work, intervening
> unprompted
> only for safety's sake or to prevent damage to the bike. I find this
> system helpful against (un)conscious bias.
>
> I'm less good at intervening when I witness sexist behaviour, but agree
> that's necessary - Mary-Catherine's approach is what I would recommend
> and
> aspire to.
>
> Brad
> pronouns: he/him
> bikeSauce (Toronto, Canada)
>
> tir. 19. jan. 2021 kl. 10:10 skrev Mary-Catherine Graziano <
> marycatherine@localmotion.org>:
>
>> I very much like the idea of the physical interruption, and the
>> returning
>> of the spanner to the woman.
>>
>> You can say something like, "thank you XX name, for helping out,
>> you've
>> done an excellent job of explaining.  I think she can take it from
>> here.
>> XX woman's name--do you have the idea now?"  Politeness is a
>> particular
>> constraint for people, and women especially are constrained by it. 
>> And age
>> differentials are tricky too.  Being a "newbie" confronted by a
>> veteran, as
>> well, provides social dynamics that make things tricky.  It's the
>> space
>> manager's obligation to provide a dynamic shifter in these situations.
>> You're going to be ham-handed sometimes.  I have made mistakes on this
>> front and insulted the heck out of people who have been overly
>> dominant in
>> a situation, but at a certain point, you have to try and fail and
>> learn how
>> to manage these types of interactions by figuring out what worked and
>> what
>> didn't.
>>
>> You can have a rule in your space that if someone is shown how to do
>> something, then they need to be actually also DOING the thing, because
>> there's a huge difference between seeing it in action and doing it
>> with
>> your hands, so any help that is given must be followed up with an
>> opportunity to do the thing.
>>
>> You can also redirect the volunteer to some other task if you want to
>> go
>> the subtle route.  "Hey XX volunteer, I need your help with this XX
>> thing".  You could even redirect them to another person who needs
>> help, but
>> tell them, in the intro to the issue, that the person who needs help
>> should
>> be doing the actual work, so their job is to walk the help-requester
>> through the repair verbally and let them do the actual work, and
>> thereby
>> set a new norm just through direction setting.
>>
>> Best,
>> Mary Catherine Graziano
>> Education and Volunteer Manager
>> Pronouns: she / her / hers
>> Local Motion
>> 1 Steele St., Burlington, VT  05401
>> phone: 802-861-2700 ext. 106
>> fax: 802-861-3096
>> www.localmotion.org
>>
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>>
>> On Sun, Jan 17, 2021 at 11:30 AM momoko saunders
>> <analyst@bikefarm.org>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> When I see someone doing this:
>>>
>>> I usually insert myself into the volunteer experience, as if to help,
>>> and
>>> then give the tool to the woman (or whoever if supposed to be holding
>>> it).
>>> Then model the behaviour I'd like to see. Maybe signal to another
>>> volunteer
>>> who knows the drill to take my place while I ask the "heart of gold"
>>> volunteer to step outside with me. I tell them right then that we
>>> want to
>>> avoid behaviour like this. You have to not hover over women.
>>>
>>> If they are overly defensive, they should likely not continue to
>>> volunteer in a capacity that involves working with other humans.
>>> A bit of defense is ok. You let people say what they want to say -
>>> but in
>>> the end you say, this behaviour is not acceptable in this space.
>>>
>>> On Sun, Jan 17, 2021 at 5:23 AM Dennis Wollersheim
>>> <dewoller@gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi everyone
>>>>
>>>> We ran a volunteer induction working bee today (photo attached), and
>>>> despite our best intentions, sexism was a constant companion.
>>>>
>>>> It wasn't over the top, just the everyday:
>>>>
>>>> Woman: "how do I...?"
>>>> Man: "let me show you..."
>>>> 10 minute later, man still holding the spanner.
>>>>
>>>> Many times, multiple circumstances.
>>>>
>>>> Unrequested advice is another common form.
>>>>
>>>> The problem is that it is baked into the cultural dynamics. It is
>>>> tricky
>>>> to interrupt without making everyone feel bad.
>>>>
>>>> I've got a personal policy that I try to follow:
>>>> - don't touch bike unless requested,
>>>> - don't offer information unless questioned, or someone about to
>>>> hurt
>>>> themselves,
>>>> - watch, listen
>>>>
>>>> But that takes much patience, and comes after 20 years of anti
>>>> sexism
>>>> work. It is a bit of a stretch for our 75 year old volunteer
>>>> mechanic with
>>>> a heart of gold.
>>>>
>>>> I'm looking for something pragmatic that we can implement, to
>>>> interrupt
>>>> the worst of it, to make some space. Does anyone have advice?
>>>> Success
>>>> stories?
>>>>
>>>> Much love from Melbourne bike shed
>>>>
>>>> Dennis
>>>> Secretary
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