Digital Games Research Association Seeks First Group of Ombuds

The international association for academics and professionals who research digital games and associated phenomena has issued a call for volunteers to serve as its first Ombuds. DiGRA's Diversity Working Group needs two or three Ombudsperson and the same number as the Ombudsperson Secretary. An announcement explained:

We are seeking to appoint a small group of people to share the responsibility of acting as neutral representatives mediating between members of the association and the board to resolve complaints and address issues that arise within the organization and membership.

The idea behind a team with two roles is to ensure sustainability, stability, and continuity of these positions and the work of the group. Elected secretaries will move into officer roles after a period of mentorship (12 months).

The Ombudsperson roles are new positions within the DiGRA organization. Thus, the volunteers would be in a strong position to shape this role and to foster change in the short-term as well as for the future of the DiGRA community.

These roles are open to everyone.

Responsibilities for Ombudsperson Team:

• The team becomes the first point of contact to raise any grievances and concerns.
• The team revises, maintains, upholds and enforces the Code of Conduct for DiGRA (across Gamesnetwork, DiGRA’s Discord channel, DiGRA international and local conferences, etc. [See: http://www.digra.org/the-association/digra-mailing-lists/]).
• The team feeds back to the DiGRA board on existing mechanisms for addressing complaints and, where necessary, proposes amendments.
• The team liaisons between the DiGRA board, the Diversity Working Group, conference program chairs, and conference chairs to maintain fair practice standards for peer reviews.

Appointment: The Ombuds-Team will be appointed by DiGRA’s international board via the Diversity Working Group. The Diversity Working Group will work in collaboration with the Ombuds-Team to try to create and maintain better initiatives and responses to grievances, on behalf of the DiGRA community. 

Applicants are asked for a short (250 words) statement of interest. The association is based in Finland and has chapters in about a dozen countries. (DiGRA Call for Ombuds.)