In 2021, individual SIGPLAN CARES committee members were contacted confidentially by between 2 and 10 community members throughout the year. Such contacts sometimes led to extended conversations.
Members of the CARES committee represented CARES at five conferences in 2021, namely POPL 2021, PLDI 2021, ICFP 2021, SPLASH 2021 and ASPLOS 2021 (the latter in collaboration with SIGARCH/SIGMICRO CARES). Attendance specifics are listed on the CARES website. Due to the covid pandemic, aside from SPLASH 2021, these conferences were virtual. SPLASH 2021 was a hybrid conference. At virtual conferences, we typically hosted a pair of 30-minute CARES zoom sessions to advertise our presence and answer community questions. During these virtual sessions, we also carried out community brainstorming exercises to think about how we could make our conferences more welcoming. Attendance at such sessions varied, but was typically between 5-20 attendees, with the median closer to 5. At SPLASH, we had virtual sessions as well as one CARES member attending in person.
We have received open, public feedback from a number of members of the community expressing the fact that they appreciate the creation of the committee—they view it as a sign that the programming languages community takes community climate and our code of conduct seriously. The fact the committee has received confidential contacts is also evidence that the community would like mechanisms to discuss matters of harassment, discrimination, or ethics in private.