Code of Conduct

Metts Strategy is dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone. We do not tolerate harassment of participants in any form. This code of conduct applies to everyone who participates in a Metts Strategy workshop, community group, or event, whether online or in-person. Anyone who violates this code of conduct may be sanctioned or expelled from any Metts Strategy group or event at the discretion of Metts Strategy. Metts Strategy customers are responsible for knowing and abiding by these rules.

Harassment

Harassment includes:

  • Offensive comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neuro(a)typicality, physical appearance, body size, age, race, or religion.

  • 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.

  • Gratuitous or off-topic sexual images or behaviour in spaces where they’re not appropriate.

  • 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.

  • Stalking or following.

  • Harassing photography or recording, including logging online activity for harassment purposes.

  • Sustained disruption of discussion.

  • 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 as necessary to protect vulnerable people from intentional abuse.

  • Publication of non-harassing private communication.

Metts Strategy prioritizes marginalized people’s safety over privileged people’s comfort. Metts Strategy will not act on complaints regarding:

  • ‘Reverse’ -isms, including ‘reverse racism,’ ‘reverse sexism,’ and ‘cisphobia’

  • Reasonable communication of boundaries, such as “leave me alone,” “go away,” or “I’m not discussing this with you.”

  • Communicating in a ‘tone’ you don’t find congenial

  • Criticizing racist, sexist, cissexist, or otherwise oppressive behavior or assumptions

Reporting

If you are being harassed by another Metts Strategy workshop/event attendee or community member, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact Metts Strategy by emailing michael@mjmetts.com. We will respond as promptly as we can. We will respect confidentiality requests for the purpose of protecting victims of abuse. 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 Metts Strategy workshop/event attendees, community members, or the general public. We will not name harassment victims without their affirmative consent.

Consequences

Participants asked to stop any behavior violating this code of conduct are expected to comply immediately. If a participant engages in any such behavior, Metts Strategy may take any action they deem appropriate, up to and including expulsion from a Metts Strategy event or community. In some cases, the participant may also be identified as a harasser to other Metts Strategy workshop/event attendees, community members, or the general public.

Attribution

This code of conduct is based on the example policy from the Geek Feminism wiki, created by the Geek Feminism community.