Our activities and events should foster meaningful collaboration between participants, community members, and government partners. We expect internal governance, participants, advocacy, activities, and events to be:
- Provide a safe, respectful, and welcoming environment where all are free to fully express their ideas and identities free from discrimination or harassment. All spaces, online or physical, shall be governed by BetaNYC’s anti-harassment policy.
- Default to open and work to be objective.
- Collaborate for the purpose of generating ideas that empower, innovate, and develop local capacity.
- Presume the value of others and cherish everyone’s ideas, skills, and contributions.
- Encourage participants to listen as much as they speak, ask respectful questions, and demystify context.
- Foster energy that builds “yes, and” ideas and permit the ability to stretch.
- Build ideas, tools, and platforms that are open and free for reuse. Activities should prioritize public use, not private gain.
- Work to prioritize access for and input from those who are traditionally excluded from the civic process, be inclusive of all Boroughs, and be considerate of our Hudson River neighbors.
- Actively involve stakeholders, community groups, and those with subject matter expertise in all decision-making processes.
- Ensure that relationships and conversations between, and among, stakeholders e.g. elected officials, their staff, and government representatives, community based organizations and their partners, and members of the BetaNYC community — remain respectful, participatory, and productive.
BetaNYC reserves the right to ask anyone in violation of these policies not to participate in BetaNYC’s events or network of activities. If you have any other concerns or would like to address an issue, please contact Noel Hidalgo, BetaNYC’s Executive Director, at noel@betaNYC.us or email the membership committee at members@betaNYC.us.
BetaNYC’s Code of Conduct is an adaptation of Code for America’s Community Code of Conduct policy. BetaNYC agrees to review this policy annually and have it voted on by members in good standing.
This anti-harassment policy is based on Code for America’s Anti-Harassment policy and the example policy from the Geek Feminism wiki, created by the Ada Initiative and other volunteers.
This policy is based on several other policies, including the Ohio LinuxFest anti-harassment policy, written by Esther Filderman and Beth Lynn Eicher, and the Con Anti-Harassment Project. Mary Gardiner, Valerie Aurora, Sarah Smith, and Donna Benjamin generalized the policies and added supporting material. Many members of LinuxChix, Geek Feminism and other groups contributed to this work.
All BetaNYC events, workplaces, staff, presenters, and participants are held to the following anti-harassment policy.
In addition to governing its own events by this policy, BetaNYC will only lend its brand and fund groups which offer a similar anti-harassment policy to their attendees. For information on how to offer an anti-harassment policy to your group, see Code for America's guide.
BetaNYC is dedicated to providing a harassment free experience for everyone. We welcome everyone regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age, religion, faith, national origin, source of income, and language preference. To build a democracy, we need everyone.
We do not tolerate harassment in any form. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any BetaNYC event or network activity, including talks. Anyone in violation of these policies may expelled from BetaNYC events or network activities; this will be at the discretion of BetaNYC leadership and/or event organizers.
Harassment includes but is not limited to offensive verbal or written comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age, religion, faith, national origin, source of income, and language preference; sexual images in public spaces; deliberate intimidation; stalking; following; harassing photography or recording; sustained disruption of talks or other events; inappropriate physical contact; unwelcome sexual attention; unwarranted exclusion; and patronizing language or action.
If a participant engages in harassing behavior, BetaNYC leadership and/or event organizers may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender and expulsion from BetaNYC events and network activities.
If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact a member of the event staff immediately. Additionally, you can contact Noel Hidalgo, BetaNYC’s Executive Director, at noel@betaNYC.us and +1.937.218.2422 or email members@betaNYC.us.
BetaNYC leadership and/or event staff will be happy to help participants contact hotel/venue security or local law enforcement, provide escorts, or otherwise assist those experiencing harassment to feel safe for the duration of the event.
If you cannot reach the event organizer and/or it is an emergency, please call 911 and/or remove yourself from the situation.
Lastly, you can also contact Code for America Communities about harassment safespace@codeforamerica.org. The Code for America Communities team acknowledges that they are not always in a position to evaluate a given situation due to the number of events and the fact that our team is not always present.
We value your attendance and hope that by communicating these expectations out widely we can all enjoy an environment that is welcoming to all. BetaNYC agrees to review this policy annually and have it voted on by members in good standing.
Note: This is a guide. If you have any issue, please report in person or use this email template.
SUBJECT: Safe Space alert at [EVENT NAME]
I am writing because of harassment at a BetaNYC event, (NAME, PLACE, DATE OF EVENT).
You can reach me at (CONTACT INFO). Thank you.
This document is reviewed annually. To comment or suggest an improvement, please fork and make pull request, use this Google Drive Document, or give private feedback at < membership@betanyc.us >.