Conference Code of Conduct

Working Group Leads: Violeta Ilik, Kaitlin Thaney, Daniel S. Katz (+ contributions from many others)

Licensed under CC0

FORCE11 is a community-run membership organization around the advancement of research and scholarship. The FORCE community consists of developers, publishers, researchers, librarians, and more, across a wide variety of disciplines and geographic locations.

FORCE11 events are community events intended for networking and collaboration as well as learning. We value the participation of every member of the research community and want all attendees to have an enjoyable and fulfilling experience. Accordingly, all attendees are expected to show respect and courtesy to other attendees throughout the event and in interactions online associated with the event.

The FORCE event organizers 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), technology choices, or other group status.

To make it clear what is expected, everyone taking part in FORCE events and discussions— speakers, helpers, organizers, and participants—is required to conform to the following Code of Conduct.

All conference participants are expected to follow this code throughout the event, and you may also contact the Code of Conduct (CoC) Committee. All communication will be treated as confidential.

To that end, we ask all attendees to adhere to the following.

All communication should be appropriate for a professional audience including people of many different backgrounds. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any event.
Be kind to others. Do not insult or put down other attendees. Be mindful of jargon, which can sometimes exclude others from engaging in the discussion.
Behave professionally. Remember that harassment and sexist, racist, ageist, or exclusionary behaviour are not appropriate.

Note that, as a community organization, we take a community approach to ensuring the safety and comfort of all attendees. Everyone is responsible for assisting in any circumstances where anyone appears not to be following the Code of Conduct.

Conflict resolution

If someone makes you or anyone else feel unsafe or unwelcome, please report it as soon as possible to a member of the Code of Conduct Committee if you are hesitant about addressing the person yourself. At any time, you can reach the Committee either in person or via email (see contact information below). The Committee is committed to addressing and resolving the issue in question to the best of their abilities.

Harassment and other Code of Conduct violations reduce the value of our event for everyone. We want you to be happy at our event. People like you make our event a better place. You can make a report either personally or anonymously.

Sanctions

Participants asked to stop any behaviour that makes others uncomfortable are expected to comply immediately. If a participant engages in harassing behaviour, organizers may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the person in question, removal from the FORCE event, or banning the offender from a mailing list.

Specific actions may include but are not limited to

warning the person to cease their behavior and that any further reports will result in other sanctions,
requiring that the person avoid any interaction with, and physical proximity to, their victim for the remainder of the event,
early termination of a talk that violates the policy,
not publishing the video or slides of a talk that violated the policy,
not allowing a speaker who violated the policy to give (further) talks at the event,
immediately ending any event volunteer responsibilities and privileges the harasser holds, requiring that the person not volunteer for future FORCE events (either indefinitely or for a certain time period),
requiring that the person immediately leave the event and not return,
banning the person from future events (either indefinitely or for a certain time period), and
publishing an account of the harassment.

FORCE event organizers can be identified by their name badges, and will help participants contact hotel/venue security or local law enforcement, provide escorts, or otherwise assist those experiencing harassment to feel safe for the duration of the event.

If an incident occurs, please use the following contact information:

Code of Conduct (CoC) Committee:
Melissa Haendel,
Dan Katz,
Cameron Neylon,
Violeta Ilik.

We expect participants to follow these rules at all conference venues, conference-related social events, community gatherings, and online communication channels.

Thank you for your participation in the FORCE community, and your efforts to keep FORCE a safe and friendly space for all participants!

Based on Code4Lib Code Of Conduct, inspired by the ADA Initiative.