Conference Code of Conduct

Code of Conduct

ISNA in an inclusive Conference that is dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), or technology choices. We will not tolerate discrimination or harassment of participants in any form (definitions provided below). Harassment including sexist, racist, or exclusionary comments or jokes are inappropriate. Sexual language and imagery, along with inappropriate comments related to gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, race or religion are also unwelcomed.

Attendance at an ISNA meeting implies consent to abide by this code of conduct. Explicitly, please follow these guidelines:

Behave professionally

All communication should be appropriate for a professional audience including people of many different backgrounds. Sexual language and imagery are not appropriate

Be kind to others. Critiques of science are appropriate, but do not insult or put down other attendees.

Participants who are asked to stop any inappropriate behaviour are expected to comply immediately.

Protocol for dealing with violations of this policy

Any participant who wishes to report a violation of this policy is asked to speak, in confidence, to this meeting’s local organizers (LOC), or any member of the ISNA International Advisory Board.

Based on the nature of the violation and the response, the LOC, in concert with the ISNA International Advisory Board, will decide upon appropriate actions. Conference delegates violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from the conference without a refund at the discretion of the conference organizers. Where a violation of the policy is deemed to have occurred, a record will also be kept to that effect within ISNA.

Photography & Video

Participants are required to respect the privacy of other participants and refrain from any unauthorized or unwelcomed recording or photography, including the recording of any direct or indirect interactions or electronic messaging with other meeting delegates. Participants are not allowed to take photos or videos of scientific material shown unless express prior consent by the presenter has been confirmed.

Definitions

Discrimination is the act of treating either a person or a group of people differently from the way in which you treat other people on the basis of protected characteristics. These include (but are not limited to) ethnicity, race, religion, gender, national extraction, age, relationship status, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, carer responsibilities, socio-economic status, mental and physical health or disability, or nationality.

Harassment is any behaviour where a reasonable person would have anticipated the possibility that the person harassed would feel offended, humiliated or intimidated. This conduct may include, but is not limited to: offensive or disrespectful verbal or written comments; bullying; slurs or negative stereotyping; threatening, intimidating or hostile acts; coercion of a sexual nature; sustained disruption of talks, or other events; telling denigrating jokes or insulting jokes about a given racial group; displaying or circulating sexually denigrating images or screensavers.

Acknowledgements of the Creation of the Code of Conduct

This code of conduct is based on the “London Code of Conduct”, as originally designed for the conference “Accurate Astrophysics. Correct Cosmology”, held in London in July 2015. The London Code was adapted with permission by Andrew Pontzen and Hiranya Peiris from a document by Software Carpentry, which itself derives from original Creative Commons documents by PyCon and Geek Feminism. It is released under a CC-Zero license for reuse.