Focus Retreat Center (FRC) is a space for participants to explore and learn, and that cannot happen if we don’t ensure our environment is free from harassment, where people show respect and courtesy to each other.
To make sure that everyone has a common understanding of “show respect and courtesy to each other,” we have adopted the following code of conduct. The code of conduct is enforced by the Focus Retreat Center staff.
This Code of Conduct applies to our online spaces in both public and private channels, as well as our physical retreat center, and at community-related social activities where you may encounter other retreat members.
Unacceptable Behavior
Harassment
Focus Retreat Center cares about creating an open and welcoming community, and we are committed to making membership a respectful and harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sex, sexual orientation, disability, neuro(a)typicality, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, national origin, immigration status, age, political affiliation, or religion.
Harassment includes, but is not limited to:
- Offensive comments or jokes related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neuro(a)typicality, physical appearance, body size, age, race, national origin, immigration status, or religion. Gratuitous or off-topic sexual images or behavior.
- Physical contact and simulated physical contact (eg, textual descriptions like “hug” or “backrub”) without consent or after a request to stop.
- Threats of violence.
- Incitement of violence towards any individual, including encouraging a person to commit suicide or to engage in self-harm.
- Deliberate intimidation, online or offline.
- Stalking or following, online or offline.
- Harassing photography or recording, including logging online activity for harassment purposes.
- Harming the discussion or community with methods such as sustained disruption, interruption, or blocking of community collaboration (i.e. trolling).
- Unwelcome sexual attention.
- Pattern of inappropriate social contact, such as requesting/assuming inappropriate levels of intimacy with others.
- Continued one-on-one communication after requests to cease.
- Deliberate “outing” of any aspect of a person’s identity without their consent except when correcting someone or as necessary to protect vulnerable people from intentional abuse.
- Non-consensual publication of private correspondence including but not limited to DMs and private channels, text messages, or emails.
- Unwelcome comments regarding a person’s lifestyle choices and practices, including those related to food, health, parenting, drugs, and employment.
- Deliberate misgendering or use of ‘dead’ or rejected names.
Nothing is too small or too large. We are always ready to help you out any way that we can. If something or someone has made you feel uncomfortable or unsafe, please don’t hesitate to reach out to anyone on the response team (listed below). You can do this anonymously if you want.
Unwelcoming behavior
Blatant -isms - saying things that are explicitly racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. For example, arguing that some people are less intelligent because of their gender, race or religion. Subtle -isms and small mistakes made in conversation are not code of conduct violations. However, repeating something after it has been pointed out to you that you broke a social rule, or antagonizing or arguing with someone who has pointed out your subtle -ism is considered unwelcoming behavior, and is not allowed at FRC.
Maliciousness towards other participants – attempting to make others feel bad, name-calling, singling out others for derision or exclusion. For example, telling someone they’re not a real programmer or that they don’t belong at FRC.
Being especially unpleasant — for example, if we’ve received reports from multiple participants or faculty of annoying, rude, or especially distracting behavior.
Enforcement
Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately.
If a member engages in harassing behavior, we retain the right to take any actions we deem appropriate to keep Focus Retreat a welcoming environment for all members. This includes but is not limited to warning the offender, facilitating an apology, asking the offender to leave the community (without a refund), or, if necessary, calling the police.
Reporting
If you are being harassed by a member of Focus Retreat Center, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please reach out to a staff member or team@focusretreatcenter.com. You can be as involved as you want in the process that follows your report. We will respond as promptly as we can.
We will respect confidentiality requests for the purpose of respecting community members. At our discretion, we may publicly name a person about whom we’ve received harassment complaints, or privately warn third parties about them, if we believe that doing so will increase the safety of Focus Retreat Center members or the general public. We will not name reporting parties without their explicit consent.
When considering to report or not, please veer on the side of reporting.
Want to suggest edits or ask questions about this policy?
Suggestions for edits and additions that will improve inclusion and diversity at Focus Retreat Center are welcome – please email team@focusretreatcenter.com with recommendations.
License
The FRC code of conduct is available under the terms of the CC0 license.
Parts of this policy are based on the Recurse Center and Indy Hall codes of conduct, the example policy from the Geek Feminism wiki, created by the Ada Initiative and other volunteers, and the the MediaWiki Code of Conduct.
The Recurse Center Code of Conduct and Geek Feminism conference anti-harassment policy are available under the terms of the CC0 license. The MediaWiki policy is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license.