MACII’s Code of Conduct Response Procedures Posted

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The MidAmeriCon II Incident Response Team Handbook, scrubbed of personal identifying information, has been posted online by IRT head Kris Snyder for use or adaptation by other conrunning groups.

A lot of conventions that have followed the trend of the past few years by adopting a Code of Conduct or antiharassment policy will find this document a help in thinking step-by-step through their own procedures.

Here are a couple of excerpts. The first was selected because it probably came into play when MACII dealt with Dave Truesdale’s membership revocation.

Handling reports about Program Participants

  • Take the report as normal.
  • If the manager evaluating the situation is considering removing the panelist from being on program, they need to consult with programming (preferably [Programming DH], [DDH] or [Program Ops] as backup).
  • If the member’s program participant privileges are revoked, please make sure to take any gizmos or ribbons that indicated their program participant status.
  • In the case that we take action against the member which does not include removing their program participant status or privileges, we still need to inform the programming department.
  • Always involved the conchair if a situation involves a Guest of Honor.

The second excerpt shows a range of available responses to complaints.

  • Actions we can take in response to a complaint (and who needs to be consulted or informed)
  • Talk to person and tell them to cut it out
  • Talk to the parents if the person reported is a minor
  • Restrict access to certain areas of the convention (eg: art show, dealer’s room, thing)
    • o Consult with the Area Head and/or Division Head Involved
  • Disallow someone’s continued participation on programming (While we can’t stop people can be assholes, but we don’t have to give them a platform to be an asshole from)
    • o Include programming in that decision.
    • o Programming has requested that we inform them about all reports made about the behavior of a program participant.  IRT bears the primary responsibility for acting on reports about panelists.
  • Pull someone from their staff position/disallow them to volunteer
    • o Supervisor should be included in the decision making process, in consultation with the area head.  The division head should be informed
    • o Volunteers should be informed
    • o If a DH is the problem, involve the chair.
    • o If it’s an advisor, involve the chair
    • o If the chair ([Chair]), is the problem, go to [Vice Chair] and [Advisor]
  • Remove someone from the convention for a day.  They can return tomorrow
    • o Please inform the chair afterwards
  • Remove someone from the convention period.
    • o Involve the chair in this decision, unless there is an immediate safety concern.

[Thanks to JJ for the story.]

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7 thoughts on “MACII’s Code of Conduct Response Procedures Posted”

  1. Before anything else, when composing rules to be followed by a convention committee and/or everybody else at a convention, find somebody on the committee who knows how to write the English language. Whoever composed the following, “While we can’t stop people can be assholes ….,” should either be shot or should be candidate number one for a retroactive abortion. *screeech*

  2. Marty Cantor: Whew, if writing mistakes upset you that much I hope you always take your meds before reading the daily Scroll!

  3. @Marty Cantor

    Did you get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning? It is possible to be polite and civil when pointing out a relatively mild grammar mistake, you know.

  4. find somebody on the committee who knows how to write the English language

    Perhaps you mean “write in the English language? No one expects them to write the English language — it has hundreds of thousands of words . . .

  5. Bill: No one expects them to write the English language — it has hundreds of thousands of words . . .

    No one expects the English Exposition!

  7. It’s nice to see that they are being thorough, and have a procedure for what to do if the incident involves the con chair. Yes, you’d hope not to need it, but you’d hope not to need the parts about division heads, about volunteers and program participants, and so on. It’s like fire safety: you do drills, you have fire extinguishers and know how to call the fire department, and you also take precautions that make fires less likely. (Or you should: I don’t always put my hair back before using the gas stove, and some portion of car crashes are because of driver error.)

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