Dublin Maker aims to build a community for all Makers ranging from tech enthusiasts to crafters, educators, tinkerers, hobbyists, engineers, artists, science clubs, students, authors and commercial exhibitors. Codes of Conduct (COC) help to make an inclusive community.

We value the participation of each member of the Dublin Maker community and want all attendees to have an enjoyable and fulfilling experience. Accordingly, all attendees are expected to show respect and courtesy to other attendees throughout all our events.

To make clear what is expected, all staff, makers, attendees, speakers, exhibitors, organisers, volunteers, and all others trading, exhibiting and otherwise participating at any Dublin Maker event are required to conform to the following Code of Conduct. Organisers will enforce this code throughout these events.

Exhibitors in Dublin Maker, sponsor or vendor booths, or similar activities are also subject to the Code of Conduct. In particular, exhibitors should not use sexualised images, activities, or other material. Booth staff (including volunteers) should not use sexualised clothing/uniforms/costumes, or otherwise create a sexualised environment.

With that in mind, please take a moment to review our Code of Conduct and Anti-Harassment Policy.

OUR STANDARDS

Dublin Maker is dedicated to providing a positive event experience for everyone, regardless of age, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, ethnicity, nationality, race, or religion (or lack thereof), education, or socio-economic status.

Examples of behaviour that contributes to creating a positive environment include

  • Being kind to others
  • Behaving professionally
  • Using welcoming and inclusive language
  • Being respectful of differing viewpoints and experiences
  • Gracefully accepting constructive criticism
  • Focusing on what is best for the community
  • Showing empathy towards other community members

Examples of unacceptable behavior by attendees include:

  • Harassment of Dublin Maker participants in any form
  • Deliberate intimidation, stalking, or following
  • Violent threats or language directed against another person
  • Sexual language and imagery in any Dublin Maker event venue, including talks
  • Insults or put-downs
  • Sexist, racist, homohobic, transphobic, ableist, or exclusionary jokes
  • Excessive swearing
  • Unwelcome sexual attention or advances
  • Unwelcome physical contact
  • Sustained disruption of talks, other makers, or other events
  • Other conduct that is inappropriate for a professional audience including people of many different backgrounds

In addition, we are bound by Irish Equality Law, which can be viewed here

Attendees asked to stop any inappropriate behavior are expected to comply immediately.
If any attendees engages in behavior that violates this code of conduct, the event organisers may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender or expulsion from the Dublin Maker festival or event

Thank you for helping make this a welcoming, friendly event for all.

CONTACT INFORMATION

If you believe that someone is violating the code of conduct during a Dublin Maker event, or have any other concerns, please contact a member of the event staff immediately.

Event staff will be happy to help attendees contact hotel/venue security or local law enforcement, provide escorts, or otherwise assist any attendee to feel safe for the duration of the festival. We value your attendance.

CREDIT

ℹ️ This Code of Conduct is based on Geek Feminism’s example anti-harassment policy as well as PyCon US Code of Conduct and WorldCon (Dublin) 2019.

As with other Code of Conducts, the Dublin Maker Code of Conduct is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

PROCEDURE FOR HANDLING INCIDENTS

ATTENDEE PROCEDURE FOR REPORTING CODE OF CONDUCT INCIDENTS

If you believe someone is in physical danger, consult with a volunteer or staff member for the appropriate crisis number, non-emergency number, or Gardaí (999 or 112).

If you believe someone has violated the Dublin Maker Code of Conduct, we encourage you to report it. If you are unsure whether the incident is a violation, or whether the space where it happened is covered by this Code of Conduct, we encourage you to still report it. We are fine with receiving reports where we decide to take no action for the sake of creating a safer space.

During the event you can make a report:

  • To a trained incident responder, who will be wearing Dublin Maker staff lanyards.
  • Email: info@dublinmaker.ie

In the event of a conflict of interest, you may directly contact any of the lead incident responders:

REPORT DATA

If you make a report via email or phone, please include:

  • Your contact info (so we can get in touch with you if we need to follow up)
  • Date and time of the incident
  • Location of incident
  • Whether the incident is ongoing
  • Description of the incident
  • Identifying information of the reported person: name, physical appearance, height, clothing, voice accent, identifying badge information such as company name, ribbons, or badge number
  • Additional circumstances surrounding the incident
  • Other people involved in or witnesses to the incident and their contact information or description

CONFIDENTIALITY

All reports will be kept confidential. When we discuss incidents with people who are reported, we will anonymise details as much as we can to protect reporter privacy.

However, some incidents happen in one-on-one interactions, and even if the details are anonymised, the reported person may be able to guess who made the report. If you have concerns about retaliation or your personal safety, please note those in your report. We still encourage you to report, so that we can support you while keeping our Dublin Maker attendees safe. In some cases, we can compile several anonymised reports into a pattern of behaviour, and take action on that pattern.

In some cases we may determine that a public statement will need to be made. If that’s the case, the identities of all victims and reporters will remain confidential unless those individuals instruct us otherwise.

REPORT HANDLING PROCEDURE

When you make a report to an incident responder, they will gather information about the incident according to the Dublin Maker Staff Procedure For Incident Response

After an incident responder takes the report, they will immediately consult with the lead incident responders (Tomas Ward, Jeffrey Roe)

If the incident is ongoing and needs to be immediately addressed, any one of the lead incident responders may take appropriate action to ensure the safety of everyone involved.

If the incident is less urgent, the three incident leads will meet within 24 hours to determine an appropriate response. Examples of possible incident responses are outlined in the Dublin Maker Staff Procedure For Incident Response

Before the event, staff will have a mandatory meeting where incident response procedures will be outlined. After the event, all incident responders will attend a debriefing session with the lead responders to discuss all incidents and determine any necessary follow-up actions.

FOLLOWING UP WITH REPORTERS

Within one week of an incident report, the lead responders will follow up with the person who made the report and provided their contact information. The follow up may include:

  • An acknowledgment that the Dublin Maker lead responders discussed the situation
  • Whether or not the report was determined to be a violation of the Code of Conduct
  • What actions (if any) were taken to correcting the reporter behavior

In some cases, the lead responders may need to ask additional questions about the incident in order to identify the reported person.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

If an incident responder has a conflict of interest for a report, they will recuse themselves from the discussion and handling of the incident. The incident documentation will not be available to them, and they will excuse themselves from any conversations involving handling the incident.

Should two out of the three lead incident responders need to recuse themselves, Jeffrey Roe will step in as a lead incident responder.

ℹ️ This procedure has been adapted from the Ada Initiative’s guide titled “Conference anti-harassment/Responding to Reports”, the Django Project reporting guidelines (CC BY 3.0) and also PyCon US Code of Conduct

STAFF PROCEDURE FOR INCIDENT RESPONSE

Be sure to have a good understanding of our Code of Conduct, which can be found here:

  • Code of Conduct

Also have a good understanding of what is expected from an attendee that wants to report an incident. These guidelines can be found here:

  • Attendee Procedure For Reporting Code of Conduct Incidents

WHEN TAKING AN INCIDENT REPORT:

  1. Ask the reporter if they want to go to a quiet space
  2. Be an active listener and don’t use judgement words
  3. Ensure the reporter’s safety
  4. Seek additional emergency resources as needed (consult the volunteer guide)
  5. Take down the report and ask any clarifying questions
  6. Thank the reporter for reporting the incident
  7. Report the incident to the lead incident responders listed below.

IN CASE OF A CONFLICT OF INTEREST, YOU CAN INDIVIDUALLY CONTACT:

WHILE GATHERING INFORMATION FROM THE REPORTER:

  1. Do not invite them to withdraw the incident report
  2. Do not ask for their advice on how to immediately respond to the incident
  3. Do not offer them input into the long-term response to the incident
  4. Do not promise any particular response, since it may differ from the official response decided by the lead incident responders

Try to get as much of the incident in written form by the reporter. If you cannot, transcribe it yourself as it was told to you. The important information to gather include the following:

  • Current date and time
  • Date and time of the incident
  • Location of incident
  • Description of the incident
  • Identifying information of the reported person: name, physical appearance, height, clothing, voice accent, identifying badge information such as company name, ribbons, or badge number
  • Additional circumstances surrounding the incident
  • Reporter’s name and contact information. If the reporter wants to make an anonymous report, allow them to do so. If responding to the incident would reveal who reported the incident (e.g. a microaggression in one-on-one conversation) ask the reporter if they have safety concerns about this.
  • Other people involved in or witnesses to the incident and their contact information or description
  • Do not prompt the reporter for suggestions of how to handle the incident, but record their suggested responses if they offer them

Assess whether an immediate response is necessary. This initial response is very important and will set the tone for Dublin Maker. Depending on the severity/details of the incident, please follow these guidelines:

  • If there is any general threat to attendees or the safety of anyone including Dublin Maker staff, consult the volunteer guide for emergency and crisis resources.
  • If everyone is presently physically safe, involve law enforcement or security only at a reporter’s request.
  • After taking the report, assess whether you need a lead incident responder to immediately respond to the incident. If so, ask the reporter to stay with you and call the lead incident responders.

Respond to reporter needs. You can:

  • Thank the reporter for making the incident report
  • Reassure them that the incident report will be reviewed by the lead incident responders
  • Gather their contact information to send a follow-up after the incident is resolved
  • Offer to get them water
  • Tell them where the Safety Room is. Offer to escort them if desired.
  • Ask, “Is there a friend or trusted person who you would like to be with you?” If so, arrange for another incident responder to get this person.
  • Ask them, “How else can I help?”
  • Provide them with specific non-emergency or crisis contacts from the volunteer guide if necessary.

Once something is reported, the event organisers, and the lead incident responders should meet. The main objectives of this meeting is to:

  • Review report documentation to determine what happened
  • Consult documentation of past incidents for patterns of behavior
  • Discuss appropriate response(s) to the incident
  • Assign a person to make those response(s)
  • Determine the follow up actions for any impacted people and/or the reporter
  • Assign a person to follow up with the impacted people

After the staff meeting and discussion, a staff member (preferably the event organiser if available) may choose to communicate with the reported person.

When following up with a reported person:

  • Explain what happened
  • Focus on the impact of their behavior
  • Reiterate the Code of Conduct and that their behavior was not appropriate
  • Give them concrete examples of how they can improve their behavior
  • Remind them of the consequences of their behavior, or future consequences if the behavior is repeated

People who are reported often get upset, defensive, or deny the report. Allow them to give any additional details about the incident. However, remember:

  • It does not matter if they did not intend to hurt anyone. Their behavior still impacted attendees negatively
  • It is not your job to reassure or forgive them
  • Do not allow the reported person to make an apology to the reporter or impacted person. Often an apology centers the reported person’s feelings and not the person who was impacted. You may accept their apology and offer to pass it on (but you’re not required to if you think it would negatively impact the reporter).

What follows are examples of possible responses to an incident report. This list is is not inclusive, and Dublin Maker reserves the right to take any action it deems necessary. Possible responses to an incident include:

  • Nothing, if the behavior was determined to not be a Code of Conduct violation
  • A verbal or emailed warning
  • Requiring that the reported person avoid any interaction with, and physical proximity to, another person for the remainder of the event
  • Requiring the reported person not attend evening events
  • Refusal of alcoholic beverage purchases at events
  • Ending a talk that violates the Code of Conduct early
  • Not publishing the video or slides of a talk that violated the Code of Conduct
  • Not allowing a speaker who violated the Code of Conduct to give (further) talks at the event now or in the future
  • Immediately ending any event volunteer responsibilities and privileges the a person holds
  • Requiring that a person not volunteer for future events your organisation runs (either indefinitely or for a certain time period)
  • Requiring that a person refund any travel grants and similar they received (this would need to be a condition of the grant at the time of being awarded)
  • Requiring that a person immediately leave the event and not return
  • Banning a person from future events (either indefinitely or for a certain time period)
  • Removing a person from membership of relevant organisation
  • Publishing an account of the incident and calling for the resignation of a person from their responsibilities (usually pursued by people without formal authority: may be called for if the person is the event leader, or refuses to stand aside from the conflict of interest, or similar, typically event staff have sufficient governing rights over their space that this isn’t as useful)

If a reported person wants to appeal the decision, notify them that they may contact Dublin Maker at info@dublinmaker.ie. Keep in mind that it is not a good idea to encourage an apology from the reported person.

It is very important how we deal with the incident publicly. Our policy is to make sure that everyone aware of the initial incident is also made aware that it is not according to policy and that official action has been taken – while still respecting the privacy of individual attendees. When speaking to individuals (those who are aware of the incident, but were not involved with the incident) about the incident it is a good idea to keep the details out.

Depending on the incident, the event organiser or their designate may decide to make one or more public announcements. If necessary, this will be done with a short announcement either during the plenary and/or through other channels. No one other than the event organiser or someone delegated authority from the event organising team should make any announcements.

If some attendees were angered by the incident, it is best to apologise to them that the incident occurred to begin with. If there are residual hard feelings, suggest to them to write an email to the event organiser listed below. It will be dealt with accordingly.

If contact cannot be made via phone or email, please proceed to the staff room.

ℹ️ This procedure has been adapted from the Ada Initiative’s guide titled “Conference anti-harassment/Responding to Reports”, the Django Project reporting guidelines (CC BY 3.0) and also PyCon US Code of Conduct