Re: Code of Conduct at events [and 1 more messages]

On Wed, 10 Nov 2010, Ian Jackson wrote:
> A written policy does a number of things:
>
> * It clarifies to everyone what is and is not OK. [...]
>
> * It clearly states that the conference organisers are prepared to
> take responsibility.
>
> * It gives the conference organisers clear guidelines for how they
> should act. [...]

This is unfortunately the sort of thing that is very hard to work out,
and I don't think SPI is the right group to work it out for our member
projects.

I would instead suggest that SPI recommend to its member projects that
they be aware of their responsibility to reducing the liability of SPI
by advising attendees of expected standards of behavior (following the
law, respecting other attendees, etc.), and implementing an action
plan when for attendees and organizers to follow when a problem is
observed or reported. Specific recommendations of a code of conduct
and pre-formulated action plans can be made to make this easier for
conferences.

Additionally, I am uncertain that a code would have helped mitigate
this situation. I refuse to believe that the alleged behavior is
considered acceptable in any extant culture. [Even though I fear it
may be common.]

Don Armstrong

--
Your village called.
They want their idiot back.
-- xkcd http://xkcd.com/c23.html

http://www.donarmstrong.com http://rzlab.ucr.edu