Enforcing a code of conduct is difficult, expert, emotionally intense work. The code of conduct response team is responsible for taking reports, investigating, deciding on responses, implementing those responses, and informing the community about their decisions if needed. The team is what turns our code of conduct from a written document into meaningful action. To achieve this, they must have the full support of conference organisation committee, and the R Foundation leadership, and have confidence they will not be overruled by them unless they have made a significant mistake.
Since participation in code of conduct response teams is usually volunteer work, the team should be large enough so that it can operate effectively even if a third of its members aren't available. It also need to be large in order to allow members to recuse themselves in they are a party to a report, or know one of the parties. Previously the response team had 3-6 members.
We recommend that the response team is not comprised only from organisation committee members, in case one of them is involved in a report.
While it is not likely to gather a team that represents every axis of oppression, it is advisable to have members that are aware that more than one oppression exist. Members should be aware of the concept of intersectionality, and not have a bias towards one form of oppression being more severe than others. In particular members should not have doubts about the effectiveness of the code of conduct, reservations about enforcing it, or more empathy for the people causing offence, than the people experience it.
You might consider preferring team members with previous response support, university Harassment Advisors, social work, or similar industry HR or NGO role.
The organising committee is recommended to set up a secure stand alone email account for the response team, which can be deleted at a later date. This address should have limited access to respect the privacy of everyone involved. The response team can decide if everyone on the team has access, if for example, they wish to rotate the responsibility of checking it during the event, or if it is the responsibility of 1-2 members only.
We recommend, and can help you, to prepare the team in the weeks leading up to the event. Some members may have not been a part of response teams, or may have not had to deal with the wide variety of possible incidents. We recommend sharing the following resources with them well in advance so they can read sample cases, and get used to your event's Code of Conduct.
We also recommend to do a follow up discussion, written or verbal as preferred, to address any specific questions or concerns they might have about scenarios, whether it be aggressive language, possible support from the university's legal team, or otherwise. These discussions will help you prepare and adjust based on the specific organisational capabilities and the team's needs.
The team needs to agree on efficient and appropriate communicatoin channels among the team, and with the organising committee during the event. Consider exchaning phone numbers, setting up a messaging group, using an ever growing email thread, etc.
Lastly, it is good practice to have a face to face meeting of the team on site, preferably a day before the event or the morning of the first day. Hopefully previous discussions have already started to build trust and cooporation among the team. If needed take the time to do some quick team building, and resolve any last minute operational issues.
- R Foundation CoC Policy
- Forwards Guidelines for Code of Conduct Policy. This is a draft that has not yet been accepted by the R Foundation.
- This CoC Response ebook contains many useful case studies. Previous response team members found it useful to read it before the event.
- Forwards can share annonimised previous reports with the team, but they are not for public circulation.
- Organise a response team, or ask Forwards to do it for you
- Publicly share the event's CoC, if you are not using the standard R Project CoC
- Publicly share the CoC policy, if you are not using the R Project CoC
- Prepare the e-mail for coc-response
- Decide on a contact person for the Response team, and define their role
- Know which room can be made available to the response team on short notice in case they need to meet, or interview, in private
- Check if you can get support from the university's legal team if needed, and what would that look like during the event of afterwards
- Decide and prepare on a simple way to identify the response team (lanyard, badge, etc.)
- Agree on a communication channel with the response team during the event (email, phone, messaging app, etc.)
- Decide how to communicate the identifiers, and communication channels, to the attendees
- When the response team concludes their work, ideally up to 30 days after the event, delete the mailbox to avoid later data concerns
We recommend to encourage, or require, all the conference participants to read and understand the CoC, well in advance. Some conference hang signs with the CoC, and the contact details (email, phone number, names) of the response team, but it is not required. We recommend to the Coc Response Team contact details and identifiers in the event's website, and information booklet, as well as mention it in the opening comments to the event.
Team members should check the response team email regularly. You might want to take turns being responsible for it so you don't feel like you're spending the entire conference worried about checking for new emails.
If an incident is reported one team member should take the lead on receiving the report, forming the response, and communicating the response.
We recommend that another team member accompanies the lead responder as a quiet observer, when they receive the report, and communicate the response. They can then help the responder remember details, give advice, and provide emotional support.
We also recommend that the entire team, has a chance to get clarifications, and provide feedback on the proposed response. We also recommend that a core organiser and core Forwards member join them. For this purpose, we recommend that the organisers inform the team if there is a quiet room that can use on demand.
Finalise all the annonimised reports.
Forwards is collecting annonimised reports from across events, to help prepare future response team. If you are happy to share your annonimised reports with us please send them to [email protected].
Delete the event's CoC email and all other data as recommended by the data retention policy draft.