**About** ----- The Maintainers is a global research and practice network interested in the concepts of maintenance, infrastructure, repair, and the myriad forms of labor and expertise that sustain our human-built world. Our members come from a variety of backgrounds, including engineers, business leaders, academic historians, social scientists, government, non-profit agencies, artists, activists, coders, and more. Our Mission and Vision ---------------------- Through collaborative efforts across an interwoven network of communities, we pursue our mission of maintaining self and society through reflection, research, and advocacy in the hopes of achieving a more caring and well-maintained world. Maintainers Leadership and Operations Team ------------------------------------------ - Lauren - Liliana ---------- Maintainers Steering Committee ------------------------------ - Himani - Mathew - Nathan - Camille - Purna - Sam Maintainers Founding Leadership Team ------------------------------------ - Andy - Lee - Jess Maintainers Fellowship Alumni ----------------------------- - Terra - Jennah - Mathew - Himani - Sam - Tona - Max - Leila - Rheanna - Linda - Purna - Himadri - Sarah *With gratitude and acknowledgement to our 2019-2025 fiscal sponsor Educopia Institute, former advisory committee members Bethany Nowviskie and Guru Madhavan, and community facilitators Devan Olson and Jordan Hale.* ---------- **Code of Engagement/Practice** --------------------------- Our mission and values outline our approach to building a caring and well-maintained world, and serve to inform our activities as a network. Our Code of Engagement describes how we put our values into practice. Please note this is a work in progress, subject to updates based on our experience as well as feedback from partners and community members. **Partnerships and collaborations will work best when:** - Work/activities align with the mission, vision, and values of The Maintainers. - We have open communication about capacity, and set realistic goals in terms of what we can accomplish together in a given timeframe. - We set clear and explicit expectations about what each partner is responsible for and we determine our system for mutual accountability. - We co-create a culture that fosters co-learning, humility, curiosity and mutual respect. - We are all vigilant about oppressive systems at work in the dynamic – sexism, racism, ableism, classism – and we have a shared investment in correcting words and actions to avoid future harm. - We share mistakes, failures, and successes. Credit and accountability is shared. **Meetings will work best when all parties:** - Recognize that oppressive systems may impact how we are in relationship to each other. Power dynamics related to age, credentials, gender, race, and ableism all have very real, daily impacts on the lives of human beings. - Recognize every individual’s lived experience, not merely named expertise. - Establish general objectives as well as the meeting’s purpose, duration, and structure before the meeting. This helps everyone employ our time together effectively. Examples include a potential partnership, prospective research project, maintenance community check-in, funding opportunity, a “get to know you” meeting, and so on. - Refrain from interrupting one another, as well as providing equitable opportunities for everyone to participate. The meeting should not be any single person’s platform. - Approach disagreement with curiosity – criticism or disagreement should include a question or an alternative suggestion (“yes, and” – not “yes, but”). - Acknowledge people’s ideas – do not simply rephase or build on someone’s idea without acknowledging them. - Commit to think of next steps at the end of the meeting, or define asynchronous tasks or responsibilities. **Events will work best when all parties:** - Intentionally include a range of lived experiences and identities. - Act in a respectful manner, and demonstrate courtesy and grace in words and actions. - Prioritize accessibility. - Clarify expectations for speakers and attendees regarding ways to contribute to the conversation, when to mute and unmute, how questions will be received and prioritized, the types of harmful behaviors that will not be permitted in the virtual or physical space, and the accountability measures in place to monitor for those behaviors. - We do not tolerate harassment of conference participants in any form. Our events are dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), or technology choices. ---------- The Values that sustain us: --------------------------- **Care | Societies must care for those individuals who take care of them** Western cultures laud and heap attention on so-called “innovators” but often overlook and forsake those individuals who keep our world from falling apart. Our community is dedicated to recognizing these crucial individuals who keep society’s systems running. We seek to identify and confront the issues that prevent Maintainers from flourishing as individuals, in collectives, and in their varied occupational roles. We highlight these obstacles as a step toward positive recommendations that will lead to greater levels of recognition, fair compensation, and more widespread appreciation of the value of maintenance labor and their foundational contributions to society. **Research | Grounded perspectives on human life with technology** Many of the problems Maintainers face stem from fanciful ideas—which we call innovation-speak—that are unsupported by evidence about how technology works, about the role new things play in society, and about how humans will benefit. A more accurate and grounded understanding of human life with technology requires continual, critical inquiry into the daily practices of individuals, organizations, and communities. Accordingly, the Maintainers fosters and promotes action research into maintenance, repair, infrastructure, and the mundane work that keeps our society going. And we seek to nurture partnerships to connect researchers and practitioners who share the goal of putting experience, research, and evidence to work. **Capacity | Resources for Maintainers to help each other** The Maintainers seeks to build capacity to improve maintenance practices and to help Maintainers—as individuals and communities—share knowledge about common challenges and best practices. There are few secrets in the science and craft of maintenance. Instead, what is needed most is to create and disseminate tools that improve maintenance practices and increase sharing of maintenance knowledge across domains. Our success requires constant feedback and engagement from a variety of stakeholders and the twin spirits of flexibility and openness to different ideas.