Code of Conduct

This policy is a “living” document, and subject to refinement and expansion in the future.
Last updated July 20, 2020.

Everyone participating in the NLP with Friends community—including, but not limited to the NLP with Friends talks, newsletter and video comments are required to agree to the following Code of Conduct. This includes all attendees, speakers, patrons (sponsors), and volunteers.

NLP with Friends is dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of seniority, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neurotype, physical appearance, body, age, race, ethnicity, nationality, language, or religion or other personal characteristics. We do not tolerate harassment of participants in any form. We expect everyone to treat one another respectfully.

Anyone who violates this Code of Conduct may be sanctioned or expelled from these spaces at the discretion of the NLP with Friends organizers.

Definitions

Harassment includes:

Zoombombing or otherwise disturbing the presentations or discussions
Offensive comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neurotype, physical appearance, body, age, race, ethnicity, nationality, language, or religion
Unwelcome comments regarding a person’s lifestyle choices and practices, including those related to food, health, parenting, drugs, and employment
Deliberate misgendering or use of ‘dead’ or rejected names
Gratuitous or off-topic sexual images, innuendo or behaviour in spaces where they’re not appropriate
Physical contact and simulated physical contact (eg, textual descriptions like “hug” or “backrub”) without consent or after a request to stop
Threats of violence
Incitement of violence towards any individual, including encouraging a person to commit suicide or to engage in self-harm
Deliberate intimidation
Stalking or following
Harassing photography or recording, including logging online activity for harassment purposes
Sustained disruption of discussion
Unwelcome sexual attention
Pattern of inappropriate social contact, such as requesting/assuming inappropriate levels of intimacy with others
Continued one-on-one communication after requests to cease
Deliberate “outing” of any aspect of a person’s identity without their consent except as necessary to protect other NLP with Friends community members or other vulnerable people from intentional abuse
Publication of non-harassing private communication without consent by the involved parties
Ridicule of ideas
Repeatedly ignoring questions, content, or comments from people based on their personal characteristics

NLP with Friends prioritizes marginalized people’s safety (to be safe to participate in all aspects without repercussions) over privileged people’s comfort. NLP with Friends reserves the right not to act on complaints regarding:

‘Reverse’ -isms, including ‘reverse racism,’ ‘reverse sexism,’ and ‘cisphobia’
Reasonable communication of boundaries, such as “leave me alone,” “go away,” or “I’m not discussing this with you.”
Communicating in a ‘tone’ you don’t find congenial when someone is highlighting your problematic behaviour
Criticizing racist, sexist, cissexist, or otherwise oppressive behavior or assumptions

Consequences

Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately.

If a participant engages in harassing behavior, NLP with Friends may take any action we deem appropriate, up to and including expulsion from all NLP with Friends spaces and if necessary identification of the participant as a harasser to other NLP with Friends community members or the general public.

Reporting and Enforcement

If you are being harassed by a member of the NLP with Friends community, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact us immediately via email.

Talks and Comments

Please contact one of the organizers present in the seminar call privately either through the chat function or via e-mail, and please document the harassment if possible.

Please contact us via email with documentation of the harassment such that we can consider it and take appropriate action.

Conflicts of Interest

If the person who is harassing you is a volunteer or organizer, or they have a conflict of interest, they will recuse themselves from handling your incident.

All reports will be handled in the strictest confidence. We will respond as promptly as we can.

Appeals

Those that have been sanctioned may appeal their sanction by contacting the organizers who will review the case and repeal any decisions made, if necessary.

Redemption

We believe that people can address and change their behaviors through self-work. If one finds that the reason for their exclusions no longer hold, they can contact the organizers who will review the case and the person’s development and make decisions on a case-by-case basis.

Thanks

This policy was based the code of conduct from XOXO Festival which in turn is based on resources provided by Geek Feminism, and borrows heavily from similar open source policies authored by JSConf AU and Django.

This policy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. We encourage other events to adopt (and enforce) similar policies by using and remixing ours.