Pagan Community Retreat is dedicated to providing a harassment-free and inclusive event
experience for everyone regardless of gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disabilities,
neurodiversity, physical appearance, body size, ethnicity, nationality, race, age, religion, or other
protected category. We do not tolerate harassment of event participants in any form. Pagan
Community Retreat takes violations of our policy seriously and will respond appropriately.
All participants of Pagan Community Retreat events must abide by the following policy:
- Be excellent to each other. We want the event to be an excellent experience for everyone
regardless of gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disabilities, neurodiversity,
physical appearance, body size, ethnicity, nationality, race, age, religion, or other protected
category. Treat everyone with respect. Participate while acknowledging that everyone
deserves to be here — and each of us has the right to enjoy our experience without fear of
harassment, discrimination, or condescension, whether blatant or via micro-aggressions.
Jokes shouldn’t demean others. Consider what you are saying and how it would feel if it were
said to or about you. - Speak up if you see or hear something. Harassment is not tolerated, and you are empowered
to politely engage when you or others are disrespected. The person making you feel
uncomfortable may not be aware of what they are doing, and politely bringing their behavior
to their attention is encouraged. If a participant engages in harassing or uncomfortable
behavior, the event organizers may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning
or expelling the offender from the event with no refund. If you are being harassed or feel
uncomfortable, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns,
please contact a member of the event staff immediately. - Harassment is not tolerated. Harassment includes, but is not limited to: verbal language that
reinforces social structures of domination related to gender identity and expression, sexual
orientation, disabilities, neurodiversity, physical appearance, body size, ethnicity, nationality,
race, age, religion, or other protected category; sexual imagery in public spaces; deliberate
intimidation; stalking; following; harassing photography or recording; sustained disruption of
talks or other events; offensive verbal language; inappropriate physical contact; and
unwelcome sexual attention. Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected
to comply immediately. - Practice saying “Yes and” to each other. It’s a theater improv technique to build on each
other’s ideas. We all benefit when we create together.
This policy extends to talks, forums, workshops, codelabs, social media, parties, casual
conversations, all attendees, partners, sponsors, volunteers, event staff, etc. You catch our drift.
Pagan Community Retreat reserves the right to refuse admittance to any Pagan Community Retreat
hosted event at any time in its sole discretion anyone having engaged in verified harassing behavior.
This includes, but is not limited to, attendees behaving in a disorderly manner or failing to comply
with this policy, and the terms and conditions herein. If a participant engages in harassing or
uncomfortable behavior, the event organizers may take any action they deem appropriate, including
warning or expelling the offender from the event with no refund.
Our event staff can usually be identified by special badges/attire. Our zero tolerance policy means
that we will look into and review every allegation of violation of our Event Community Guidelines and
Anti-Harassment Policy and respond appropriately. Please note, while we take all concerns raised
seriously, we will use our discretion as to determining when and how to follow up on reported
incidents, and may decline to take any further action and/or may direct the participant to other
resources for resolution.
Event staff will be happy to help participants contact venue security or local law enforcement,
provide escorts, or otherwise assist those experiencing discomfort or harassment to feel safe for the
duration of the event. We value your attendance.
Exhibiting partners, sponsors or vendor booths, or similar activities are also subject to this policy.
Participants and exhibiting partners or sponsors disobeying this policy will be notified and are
expected to stop any offending behavior immediately.
Why this policy is important
Harassment at events and in online communities is unfortunately common. Creating an official
policy aims to improve this by making it clear that harassment of anyone for any reason is not
acceptable within our events and communities. This policy may prevent harassment by clearly
defining expectations for behavior, aims to provide reassurance, and encourages people who have
had bad experiences at other events to participate in this one.
License and attribution
This policy is licensed under the Creative Commons Zero license.
This policy is based on and influenced by several other community policies including: Ohio LinuxFest
Anti-Harassment policy, Con Anti-Harassment Project, Geek Feminism Wiki (created by the Ada
Initiative), ConfCodeofConduct.com, JSconf, Rust, Diversity in Python, and Write/Speak/Code.