[Linux-aus] Linux Australia Code of Conduct - revised draft

[Alice Boxhall]

Greetings,

The council has received a lot of excellent feedback for the initial
draft for a Code of Conduct to cover all Linux Australia events, sent
to the linux-aus list on 13 September
(http://lists.linux.org.au/pipermail/linux-aus/2011-September/019082.html).
We have tried our best to incorporate these suggestions into our
revised draft, included below.

We hope to make this, or something very similar to it, our official
Code of Conduct for Linux Australia events as soon as possible. Thus,
we would like to ask the Linux Australia community once more for any
comments or suggestions on this draft, prior to our posting a final
version.

Thanks,
Alice

=====

## Linux Australia Code of Conduct

Linux Australia events invite diverse groups of people - regardless of
age, race, gender identity or expression, background, ability,
appearance, sexuality, walk of life, or religion - to discuss and
learn about all things Free and Open Source.

We wish all attendees at our events to enjoy an environment of mutual
respect, tolerance and encouragement, in accordance with the Linux
Australia statement of values [http://linux.org.au/values].

This, in turn, is the responsibility of all attendees: each attendee
is expected to show respect and courtesy to all other attendees
throughout the event and at all associated events, whether officially
sponsored by Linux Australia or not. To this end, all delegates,
speakers, exhibitors, sponsors, suppliers, venue and media personnel,
event organisers and volunteers at any Linux Australia event are
required to agree to and abide by the following Code of Conduct.
Organisers will enforce this code throughout the event.

# Appropriate behaviour

Attendees and speakers must not engage in any intimidation,
harassment, or abusive or discriminatory behaviour.

Harassment includes, but is not limited to:

- offensive verbal comments related to gender, sexual orientation,
disability, physical appearance, body size, race or religion;
- sexual images in public spaces (including presentation slides);
- deliberate intimidation;
- stalking or following;
- unwanted photography or recording;
- sustained disruption of talks or other events;
- inappropriate physical contact;
- unwelcome sexual attention.

Discriminatory behaviour includes, but is not limited to:

- sexist, racist, or other exclusionary jokes;
- exclusionary language;
- unwarranted exclusion from conference or related events based on
gender, sexual orientation, ability, physical appearance, body size,
race, religion or other attributes;
- making unjustified assumptions about attendees.

Participants asked by event staff to stop any inappropriate behavior
are expected to comply immediately. Consequences for refusal to to
comply with such a request are explained below.

# Appropriate content

As we wish all of our attendees to feel welcome and comfortable at all
times during the event, all communication should be appropriate for a
professional, diverse audience.

Any public presentation which is part of the conference, including but
not limited to keynotes, presentations, lightning talks and addresses,
is subject to the appropriate behaviour guidelines above and thus may
not contain:

- sexual or violent imagery;
- exclusionary language;
- exclusionary humour of any kind;
- language which is not appropriate for an all-ages audience.

Any presenter who violates these guidelines will be given a warning at
the first violation if it is minor, and the presentation will be
stopped if either a second minor violation occurs or any major
violation occurs.

If presenters are unsure whether their material is suitable, they are
encouraged to show it to the conference’s speaker liaison before their
session.

# Reporting and consequences

If you see or hear a speaker/attendee displaying any behaviour which
is disallowed by the code of conduct and which is distressing to you
or another attendee, or have any other concerns, please contact a
member of the Linux Australia Event staff.

All complaints made to Linux Australia or event organisers will remain
confidential, be taken seriously, investigated, and dealt with
appropriately.

The event organisers or Linux Australia may take any or all of the
following measures:

- The alleged offender may be asked to stop or modify their behaviour.
- The alleged offender may be warned that enforcement action will be
taken if the behaviour continues.
- If the behaviour continues, the alleged offender may be asked to
immediately leave the venue and/or be prohibited from continuing to
attend the event (without reimbursement).
- The incident may be reported to the appropriate authorities.

Linux Australia is aware of the responsibility required to ensure a
successful and productive event. If an incident occurs, Linux
Australia will formally apologise to those affected. A record of the
incident will be kept and future measures will be taken to ensure that
it does not happen again.