Hi, At the general IRC meeting which took place yesterday and day, Chris Cormack proposed the adoption of a code of conduct for Koha events. This proposal received general assent. The proposed wording is: ___START___ All delegates, speakers, sponsors and volunteers at any Koha event are required to agree with the following code of conduct. Organisers will enforce this code throughout the event. The Quick Version Koha event organisers are dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, or religion. We do not tolerate harassment of event participants in any form. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any event venue, including talks. Event participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from the event without a refund at the discretion of the event organisers. Harassment includes, but is not limited to: * Violent threats, intimidation or personal insults directed against another person * Verbal, graphic or written comments related to gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race or religion * Posting sexually explicit or violent material * Stalking or following, including harassing photography or recording * Sustained disruption of talks or other presentations * Inappropriate physical contact or sexual attention * Posting (or threatening to post) other people’s personally identifying information * Advocating for, or encouraging, any of the above behavior * Repeated harassment of others. In general, if someone asks you to stop, then stop The Less Quick Version Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately. Sponsors are also subject to the anti-harassment policy. In particular, sponsors should not use sexualized images, activities, or other material. Booth staff (including volunteers) should not use sexualized clothing/uniforms/costumes, or otherwise create a sexualized environment. If a participant engages in harassing behavior, event organisers retain the right to take any actions to keep the event a welcoming environment for all participants. Event organisers may take action to redress anything designed to, or with the clear impact of, disrupting the event or making the environment hostile for any participants. If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact a member of event staff immediately. Event staff can be identified by a clearly marked “STAFF” badge, button or shirt. Event staff will be happy to 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. We value your attendance. We expect participants to follow these rules at all event venues and event-related social activities. We think people should follow these rules outside event activities too! This code of conduct is borrowed, slightly modified, from the folks at Evergreen who borrowed it from the folks at GopherCon, who borrowed it from JSConf, with permission. A section is adapted from the OpenStack Summit Code of Conduct. ___END___ At second half of the meeting, some concerns were raised regarding the wording. These include: * The desirability of having the policy explicitly cover online forums such as the IRC channel and the mailing lists. * Alternative wording for the policy as applied to online forums, e.g., the Debian code of conduct that was recently adopted. [1] At this point, I call for folks who have amendments to the draft policy to propose to do so via this mailing list. I further suggest that we aim to achieve consensus on final wording this month so that a vote can be taken at the July general meeting. If more time turns out to be needed, so be it, but I strongly feel that we should adopt a code of conduct well in advance of KohaCon14 in October. [1] https://www.debian.org/vote/2014/vote_002#amendmenttexta Regards, Galen -- Galen Charlton Manager of Implementation Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts email: gmc@esilibrary.com direct: +1 770-709-5581 cell: +1 404-984-4366 skype: gmcharlt web: http://www.esilibrary.com/ Supporting Koha and Evergreen: http://koha-community.org & http://evergreen-ils.org