2019 Code of Conduct Transparency Report
Transparency Report: Reported 2019 Code of Conduct Violations
This is the first year that ORDcamp formed an independent committee to handle code of conduct violations. We feel that this is an important step in making ORDcamp a welcoming and inclusive environment for all participants. We worked to establish systems and procedures in place to make reporting and the handling of those reports clear and streamlined.
We believe that this committee is a work in progress and we will continue to work and iterate to improve our systems. Part of this work is to create institutional knowledge within ORDcamp including the release of an annual transparency report (which Erie Meyer suggested and started for 2018). We will also make recommendations for updating the existing Code of Conduct.
ORDCamp is a unique space unlike most other conferences and the committee considered this when deliberating on reports. While many of our reports were not clear violations of the code of conduct we felt it would be for the benefit of the whole camp to have conversations with attendees about behaviours such as mansplaining, interrupting, and excessive dominance in conversations. While these discussions are often uncomfortable and emotionally taxing we felt it was important for continuing efforts to make ORDcamp inclusive and welcoming.
Reports
An attendee was reported for excessive interrupting and mansplaining during neighbourhood dinner. This is not a clear violation of the code of conduct but we spoke with the attendee about being mindful of this behaviour.
An attendee was reported for excessive interrupting and dominating conversation during neighbourhood dinner. This is not a clear violation of the code of conduct but we spoke with the attendee about being mindful of his behaviour (This is not a duplicate of the previous report).
Anonymous notes were posted on the scheduling board that stated, “Homan Square is not a neighbourhood. Let’s be mindful about the politics and history of names.” This is not a clear violation of the code of conduct but we felt it was important to take action. We advised the ORDCamp organizers to remove any signage that states ‘Homan Square’ on it, provide stickers for attendees in that ‘neighbourhood’ to cover up their badges, and to make a statement in the closing plenary about why such action was taken.
An attendee reported that ‘semi-surreptitious’ video recording was taking place during a session. While this is not a clear violation, it does violate the “chatham house rule” announced at the opening plenary; recording should not be done without the explicit consent of all parties involved. The incident was handled at the time by people in the session and the video was deleted. No additional action was taken by the committee.
An attendee reported discomfort with another camper due to a verbal incident that occurred outside of ORDcamp. The committee determined that further discussion needed to be done to create recommended policy and procedure for future events for reports involving incidents that occur outside of ORDcamp. Upon deliberation we found that there was no safety risk for the attendee or other ORDcamp members and did not take further action.
An attendee reported pre-emptive concern about music choices. There was no code of conduction violation and we advised the attendee to use discretion.
An attendee was reported for aggressive and hostile behaviour in a session. A heated discussion at the beginning of a session led to an attendee storming out and then briefly returning which was viewed as a hostile act. This is not a clear code of conduct violation but we spoke with the attendee about proper behaviour for how to handle disagreements in the future.
In advance
ORD Camp organizers made sure that people who were banned from the event previously were not on the attendee list and hired private security to ensure that only approved attendees were present.
Thank you
Thank you to PyCon’s code of conduct transparency report, and Laurenellen McCann’s work with Code for America’s network team on their transparency reports for the excellent examples.