[Koha] Code of conduct

[Galen Charlton]

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 at 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