Community Events Participation Guidelines

(Adapted from Mozilla Participation Guidelines)

Our community events are a safe space to learn, teach, and ask questions of each other. In order to make our Community Studios welcome to all, we provide these Participation Guidelines. Please note that these guidelines are a supplement to (and not a replacement of) Fred Hutch’s Standards of Conduct while participating in Community Studios related activities.

These guidelines aim to support a community where all people should feel safe to participate, introduce new ideas and inspire others, regardless of:

Openness, collaboration and participation are core values of our work together. We gain strength from diversity and actively seek participation from those who enhance it. These guidelines exist to enable diverse individuals and groups to interact and collaborate to mutual advantage. This document outlines both expected and prohibited behavior. We welcome any suggestions and changes to make these guidelines more inclusive for everyone, by emailing us at data@fredhutch.org.

When and How to Use These Guidelines

These guidelines outline our behavior expectations as participants of community studios in all community studio activities, both offline and online. Your participation is contingent upon following these guidelines in community studios related activities, including but not limited to:

  • Participating in Community Studio sessions (online or in person)
  • Participation in Community Studio Slack channels
  • Community Studio Co-working sessions
  • Any projects resulting from Community Studios Participation

Expected Behavior

The following behaviors are expected of all participants:

Be Collaborative

When providing feedback, try to use the “Yes, And…” rule when making suggestions - try to build up and synthesize rather than tear down and analyze. Only provide the type of feedback that a participant requested and not give unwanted feedback. Honor and appreciate questions (”that’s a great question!”) that come from others with different areas of knowledge. Give space to those who may talk less in a session to contribute to discussions. Give credit where credit is due, especially if collaborators helped you shape a project or a publication, using citations, mentions, or in chat.

Be Respectful

Value each other’s ideas, styles and viewpoints. We may not always agree, but disagreement is no excuse for poor manners. Be open to different possibilities and to being wrong. Be respectful in all interactions and communications, especially when debating the merits of different options. Be aware that other’s area of knowledge may be different than yours. Be aware of your impact and how intense interactions may be affecting people. Be direct, constructive and positive. Take responsibility for your impact and your mistakes – if someone says they have been harmed through your words or actions, listen carefully, apologize sincerely, and correct the behavior going forward.

Be aware of the impact of words such as “just” or “simply” as demotivating to others.

Be Inclusive

Seek diverse perspectives. Diversity of views and of people on teams powers innovation, even if it is not always comfortable. Encourage all voices. Help new perspectives be heard and listen actively. If you find yourself dominating a discussion, it is especially important to step back and encourage other voices to join in. Be aware of how much time is taken up by dominant members of the group. Provide alternative ways to contribute or participate when possible.

Be inclusive of everyone in an interaction, respecting and facilitating people’s participation whether they are:

  • Remote (on video or phone)
  • Not native language speakers
  • Coming from a different culture
  • Using pronouns other than “he” or “she”
  • Living in a different time zone
  • Facing other challenges to participate

Think about how you might facilitate alternative ways to contribute or participate. If you find yourself dominating a discussion, step back. Make way for other voices and listen actively to them.

Understand Different Perspectives

Our goal should not be to “win” every disagreement or argument. A more productive goal is to be open to ideas that make our own ideas better. Strive to be an example for inclusive thinking. “Winning” is when different perspectives make our work richer and stronger.

Appreciate and Accommodate Our Similarities and Differences

We come from many cultures and backgrounds at Fred Hutch. Cultural differences can encompass everything from official religious observances to personal habits to clothing. Be respectful of people with different cultural practices, attitudes and beliefs. Work to eliminate your own biases, prejudices and discriminatory practices. Realize that your level of understanding/practice may not be other’s, and eliminate your assumptions when possible. Think of others’ needs from their point of view. Use preferred titles (including pronouns) and the appropriate tone of voice. Respect people’s right to privacy and confidentiality. Be open to learning from and educating others as well as educating yourself; it is unrealistic to expect participants to know the cultural practices of every ethnic and cultural group, but everyone needs to recognize one’s native culture is only part of positive interactions.

Lead by Example

By matching your actions with your words, you become a person others want to follow. Your actions influence others to behave and respond in ways that are valuable and appropriate for our organizational outcomes. Design your community and your work for inclusion. Hold yourself and others accountable for inclusive behaviors.

Behavior That Will Not Be Tolerated

The following behaviors are considered to be unacceptable under these guidelines.

Violence and Threats of Violence

Violence and threats of violence are not acceptable - online or offline. This includes incitement of violence toward any individual, including encouraging a person to commit self-harm. This also includes posting or threatening to post other people’s personally identifying information (“doxxing”) online.

Personal Attacks

Conflicts will inevitably arise, but frustration should never turn into a personal attack. It is not okay to insult, demean or belittle others. Attacking someone for their opinions, beliefs and ideas is not acceptable. It is important to speak directly when we disagree and when we think we need to improve, but such discussions must be conducted respectfully and professionally, remaining focused on the issue at hand.

Derogatory Language

Hurtful or harmful language related to:

  • Background
  • Family status
  • Gender
  • Gender identity or expression
  • Marital status
  • Sex
  • Sexual orientation
  • Native language
  • Age
  • Ability
  • Race and/or ethnicity
  • Caste
  • Neurodiversity
  • National origin
  • Socioeconomic status
  • Religion
  • Geographic location
  • Other attributes

is not acceptable. This includes deliberately referring to someone by a gender that they do not identify with, and/or questioning the legitimacy of an individual’s gender identity. If you’re unsure if a word is derogatory, don’t use it. This also includes repeated subtle and/or indirect discrimination; when asked to stop, stop the behavior in question.

Unwelcome Sexual Attention or Physical Contact

Unwelcome sexual attention or unwelcome physical contact is not acceptable. This includes sexualized comments, jokes or imagery in interactions, communications or presentation materials, as well as inappropriate touching, groping, or sexual advances. Additionally, touching a person without permission, including sensitive areas such as their hair, pregnant stomach, mobility device (wheelchair, scooter, etc) or tattoos is unacceptable. This includes physically blocking or intimidating another person. Physical contact or simulated physical contact (such as emojis like “kiss”) without affirmative consent is not acceptable. The sharing or distribution of sexualized images or text is unacceptable.

Disruptive Behavior

Sustained disruption of events, forums, or meetings, including talks and presentations, will not be tolerated. This includes:

  • ‘Talking over’ or ‘heckling’ speakers.
  • Minimizing contributions from others (”That’s dumb, use this instead”)
  • Otherwise influencing crowd actions that cause hostility in the session.

Influencing Unacceptable Behavior

We will treat influencing or leading such activities the same way we treat the activities themselves, and thus the same consequences apply.

Consequences of Unacceptable Behavior

These consequences build on the Standards of Conduct at Fred Hutch. When in doubt, refer to those policies, including the related reporting procedures. The consequences below apply to Community Studio related events in particular.

Bad behavior from any participant, including those with decision-making authority, will not be tolerated. Intentional efforts to exclude people (except as part of a consequence of the guidelines or other official action) from community studio activities are not acceptable and will be dealt with appropriately.

Reports of harassment/discrimination will be promptly and thoroughly investigated by the people responsible for the safety of the space, event or activity. Appropriate measures will be taken to address the situation. In addition, any participants who abuse the reporting process will be considered to be in violation of these guidelines and subject to the same consequences. False reporting, especially to retaliate or exclude, will not be accepted or tolerated.

Anyone being asked to stop unacceptable behavior is expected to comply immediately. Violation of these guidelines can result in anyone being asked to leave an event or online space, either temporarily or for the duration of the event, or being banned from participation in spaces, or future events and activities in perpetuity.

Reporting

If you believe you’re experiencing unacceptable behavior that will not be tolerated as outlined above, please use data@fredhutch.org to report it to our leadership.

After receiving a concise description of your situation, we will review and determine the next steps. In addition to conducting any investigation, they can provide a range of resources, from a private consultation to other community resources.

  • Questions: data@fredhutch.org

Please also report to us if you observe a potentially dangerous situation, someone in distress, or violations of these guidelines, even if the situation is not happening to you.

If you feel you have been unfairly accused of violating these guidelines, please follow the same reporting process.

License and Attribution

This set of guidelines is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license.

These guidelines have been adapted with modifications from Mozilla’s Community Participation Guidelines, the Ubuntu Code of Conduct, Mozilla’s View Source Conference Code of Conduct, and the Rust Language Code of Conduct, which are based on Stumptown Syndicate’s Citizen Code of Conduct. Additional text from the LGBTQ in Technology Code of Conduct and the WisCon code of conduct. This document and all associated processes are only possible with the hard work of many, many Mozillians/Hutchies.