{"id":637,"date":"2014-03-14T17:31:20","date_gmt":"2014-03-15T01:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sheldon-hess.org\/coral\/?p=637"},"modified":"2014-09-23T07:51:09","modified_gmt":"2014-09-23T15:51:09","slug":"code-of-conduct-pledge-and-cosigner-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheldon-hess.org\/coral\/2014\/03\/code-of-conduct-pledge-and-cosigner-list\/","title":{"rendered":"Code of conduct pledge and cosigner list"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although I’ve mentioned it a couple of times, informally, I would like to more publicly\/formally talk about my participation in the Code of Conduct Pledge (#CoCPledge) movement—and hopefully add value to the movement with a sortable list of co-signers. (I’m not using this post to make all the arguments about why codes of conduct are important, but I’ve written about it before<\/a>, and I will again.)<\/p>\n

Now, I’m no John Scalzi<\/a>, and I know<\/em> there aren’t any events\/organizations that would miss me so much that they will drop everything to develop one of these statements (and the buy-in and policy changes that go alongside them). BUT I think I can help this movement by developing a list of co-signers—a bit like Mr. Scalzi<\/a>‘s, but hopefully in a format that can be sorted\/filtered. The 1500+ co-signers on his thread range from sci-fi convention attendees to famous authors, and although I’m confident that there are many people relevant to library conferences, I can’t point to them. Same with tech events. Same with conventions. <\/p>\n

Who knew, the librarian would suggest that we need metadata? :)<\/p>\n

Again, I’m sure my<\/em> code of conduct pledge will have little to no effect\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbeyond the tons of work I am putting into helping a couple of organizations\/events I care about to adopt them\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut I think that many<\/em> of us making this commitment absolutely will<\/em> matter, especially if event organizers can see how many attendees\/speakers\/volunteers they’re losing by not adopting these codes.<\/p>\n

Would you like to sign\/pledge?<\/h3>\n

So, if you have taken a similar pledge to Scalzi’s or to mine (below), would you please fill out this very short<\/em> form<\/strong><\/a>? I’ll put a page up on the Geek Feminism Wiki, or some other appropriate place, listing co-signers in some organized way. (If lots of people end up on the list, maybe I’ll ask for help. I’m also setting it to be publicly viewable<\/a>, so people can start using the list before I do anything with it, if they want.) If you want to write a blog post about your particular pledge, I think that’s fantastic; feel free to include the link in the form. <\/p>\n

As for what, specifically, you’d be agreeing to and whether exceptions are OK, I agree with Mr. Scalzi<\/a> (again :)) on the whole idea that you’re an adult human who will make the right choices for you, and your pledge doesn’t have to be the same as mine or as his; you decide what you’re comfortable with<\/em>!<\/p>\n

My version of the pledge<\/h3>\n

I pledge not to volunteer for organizations or to attend conferences, conventions, or tech events without \u00e2\u20ac\u0153strong, specific, enforced<\/a>” codes of conduct* \u00e2\u20ac\u201d for me, that means they must have 1) a list of protected classes of people**, 2) some kind of demarcation between appropriate and inappropriate behaviors**, 3) a reporting\/enforcement mechanism in case of code of conduct violations, and, if I’m serving on an event’s organizing committee, I also insist that we have 4) a plan for enforcement.<\/p>\n

* “Codes of Conduct” is interchangeable with “anti-harassment policies” or statements of appropriate conduct” \u00e2\u20ac\u201d what matters to me is the policy, not its name. The “strong, specific, enforced” rule originally comes from the Ada Initiative<\/a>.
\n** Because nobody understands “everybody” properly; nobody’s neutral; Wheaton’s Law is not enough<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some examples<\/h3>\n