As our Village grew we adopted a code of conduct

[Bagelfather]

When I ran for Mayor of Silicon Village I promised that I would work on a code of conduct for our Village online, at events, and on playa. Our leadership group has ratified this code of conduct. I am sharing it here in case any other villages or camps are interested in using some of this material.

Here is where I am coming from on this. I work in security/trust and safety for a large company and I have been involved in code of conduct issues. I have seen first hand what happens when members go on our Village group and post vile hate speech or degrade other members thinking they are being funny or just out of spite. I polled our Village and I had people step forward and tell me stories of physical harassment and sexual assault that did not get resolved properly because no one had a set expectation of behavior or know how to properly handle it.

On a personal level I am working on a non-profit project to help keep the geek girl culture safe for women in the sense of empowering men to shut down other men when they act up (I state men, because 99%+ of harassment is from men in this culture).

Drawing upon all of that I drafted a code of conduct which my leadership team overwhelmingly approved. I wanted the citizens of our Village to understand that this is not a social experiment or an art piece, this is how we expect people to behave. You can have fun, you just need to responsible. Being drunk or high is no excuse to grab someone (or worse).

One of the key things I am working with is to create a safe zone and a safety lead who will help organize and run this aspect of our Village. The point being that if someone is in trouble we can get the person to a safe area. People can watch over that person and be comforting while someone goes and gets a Ranger to help us resolve the issue.

I share this and I ask if anyone has had similar things put in place in their village or camp? I am not able to upload a PDF,but I have added as an image. I can email a PDF if you contact me.

Thank you.

Mayor Bagelfather
Silicon Village

[danibel]

I couldn't find the PDF, but I applaud you and your effort.

Thanks.

[Bagelfather]

I can't do PDFs, but I did upload it as a JPG.

[nilasnake]

thanks, a lot of places should do this. wish it was a pdf.

[Lonesomebri]

Nice. Stuff like this, written out, is good to have, even if someone thinks it's unnecessary. It's a good preemptive defense against bad behavior. It's funny how often stuff that seems like it would be obvious (good conduct, whatever) isn't obvious to offenders. When I worked in retail simple things like "no return without receipt" had to be posted, places have to post that they have the right to refuse service. The violators are the most oblivious, and there has to be some sort of sign to point to or they don't understand the problem. "Hey, I thought it was cool to grope everyone, no body told me different, it's Burning Man!!!!" If not a pdf for others to use, is there anyway to post your code of conduct here as just plain text, something that others can then copy, paste and edit for their own needs?

I will suggest to my camp boss that he print something like this. Last year we relied on him showing everyone in camp how to behave and act, while I was used as the warning on how not to...

[VultureChow]

I like it a lot. The only thing I would add personally is some mention of Law Enforcement in the event of serious crimes. Assault, rape, theft etc.

The default is not to turn to LEOs, and I get that sentiment. But in serious cases they should absolutely be brought in and everyone should know about it ahead of time. Otherwise I think an organization runs the risk of thinking that everything can and should be handled internally and I think the various religious sex abuse scandals illustrate what can happen.

[Bagelfather]

For those who want a PDF you may email me directly and request it: [email protected]. Regarding law enforcement we have not finalized the actions to be taken in the event of an in person incident. My goal for our safety lead would be to have nothing to do once things are set up. That would be a beautiful thing. I have high hopes that there will not be problems from people in our Village or outside. However, having something like this makes people aware and that if something starts to happen it can be stopped before it escalates and if it does help can be brought in a safe environment.

I work in Security/Trust and Safety and I prefer to head things off at the past rather than be reactionary.

[tatonka]

here is mine ")

http://in5d.com/native-american-code-of-ethics/

[trilobyte]

Great info, thanks for sharing. I know that many larger camps and villages have some form of guidelines, they can vary as widely as the groups themselves.

[some seeing eye]

We can't apply this to ePlaya, can we? Because the Internet?

[Simon of the Playa]

yeah, good luck with that.

[trilobyte]

Our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines are linked at the bottom of every page of this site. To report a post, click on the triangular icon with an exclamation point in it on the top right of the post in question - that will flag it for moderator review.

[Bagelfather]

Thanks Trilobyte!

[dragonpilot]

My old flight instructor insisted I land on the runway's centerline, even though the runway was as wide as a freeway. He explained that if he allowed for any tolerance, it would be exceeded. Code of Conduct establishes tolerance levels...all good! I set up the same sort of thing when I used to take an RV load of folks to the Burn...sure cut off a lot of problems at the pass.

[Token]

Adjudicating good behavior is a laughable dream.

Sadly, the only people that will read a code of conduct and take it seriously are the ones that least need it.

Besides, if I wanted some random person to dictate what I can and cant do, could just stay at the office and save a few thousand $$$.

[Bagelfather]

The code of conduct is to be able to refer to something when someone gets out of hand. The key concern is physical assault/abuse and then harassment. We want villagers to be safe and to know that they have a baseline in case things get out of hand. We aren't here to regulate everyone, we are here to regulate ourselves and if people are causing problems our villagers know that they can have something done about it.

Playa does not mean all bets and rules are out the window.

We have placed our code of conduct on our website: http://siliconvillageburners.org/welcom ... f-conduct/

Mayor Bagelfather

[Savannah]

* The camp I have been most closely involved with over the years also has a code of conduct (far shorter, but similar). Careful editing can be a plus.

* There is a general camp leader, & a Crisis Resolution Team. (Approximately 8 people; varying genders/orientations). The team is introduced to the rest of the camp at the Meet & Greet or earlier. That way, a woman can take her concerns about sexual harassment to a woman if she would be more comfortable, and vice versa. If needed, the Team can meet discreetly and discuss the issue as a group, and have multiple perspectives.

* There is a brief, humorous, and informative speech @ the Meet & Greet based on guidelines from the Bureau of Erotic Discourse (B.E.D.) which is common sense for most, but helpful in particular for the youngest and newest people. Demonstrations are included. This can actually be a great way to get everyone on the same page.