FOSS4G'13

My first impression is this a typical NA-PC thing... I've always hoped,  and basically still believe, we are in a world where this is self-evident, but if our North-American visitors feel better if we have it, why not...
I do hope  they also publish a no-guns-on-the-premisses one for FOSS4g-NA ;-)

Definitely more of an issue in NA, but a real one nonetheless. Can we publish a polite holding message for the moment and discuss next week, I think it needs to be handled quite carefully...

I agree with Barend's sentiments. I also agree with Jo that it needs some careful handling. For example, I'm not sure we'd want to state the following from the NA policy: "Conference 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 conference", would we? (Though in practice I guess we would do this sort of thing). I'd also hope that we wouldn't need to put a link to the policy right up front on the front page, but as a link under "About"?  Still, it's not necessarily a bad thing to express the sentiment.

I would second a careful handling of these things and phrase it more general, avoiding such explicit enumerations.

 The section on "Booth Staff" and dress code is not necessarily "self-evident" - some people expect booth staff to be wearing micro skirts and skimpy tops.  Quite where the line between "sexualised clothing" and merely "gendered clothing" is I don't know. But I do know that none of us want to see Esri's desk staffed by 'booth babes'... We probably need an exhibitor's code of conduct.

"sexual language and imagery is not appropriate" is also not necessarily self evident, and also exists in degrees. We're all grown-ups, its part of adult life, so is this repressing it? The problem here is that it is very easy to greatly offend people, so the policy is "we'll have none of that", but does that mean if someone thrusts a mighty innuendo into their talk we kick them out?

Maybe a Conference Code of Conduct sounds less rampantly PC than a "harassment policy", and can also cover things like dress code (or someone will ask "do I need a tux for the dinner?"), timeliness ("speakers will be expected to stop on time or the session convener will cut them off") and so on. Harassment could be a component of this, and then it's there but doesn't generate the "oh no we're all going PC now" brouhaha that you get from giving it excessive (to our mostly reserved, British sensibilities) prominence.

I don't know if there are other policies we may need to establish:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2012/oct/03/ethics-live-tweeting-academic-conferences

which again, could go into the Code of Conduct...

I am glad that I shared this to get your input. How is this for a post back on the twitter account?

The LOC will be discussing a Code of Conduct for FOSS4G which will be published on the web site

Should someone post something to the FOSS4G list?

Prefer: "The LOC is discussing..." - because we are!

I think we're due a progress email to osgeo-discuss (sponsors, programme,
etc) which I'll do this afternoon and will mention this.

Had a thought that we may be subservient to EMCC's T&Cs, which include:

Code of conduct
14.1 Unless we are notified in writing otherwise, the person signing
the contract will be responsible for the behaviour of the
delegates, guests or third party service providers. You must
ensure that they do not undertake any activities that may bring
Nottingham Conferences into disrepute and comply with the
code of conduct, a copy of which is available on our website or
can be sent to you if requested.

And:

You must tell us what entertainment or third party services or
activities you have arranged. If they are considered to be
inappropriate, or Nottingham Conferences deem it to be of a
racist, sexist or discriminatory nature or that the activities that
could cause offence or damage to our reputation, we reserve
the right to refuse or disallow them and we are not liable for
any costs you incur.

 - but I don't think we were planning to get Bernard Manning to perform anyway, had he still been alive...