You know what? You're right (more Arisia)

[drwex]

Backgrounder: Arisia has a Code of Conduct. It's an official corporate policy that every year's convention uses and every attendee must agree to abide by. If you don't agree, we refund your money on the spot. Read it here: https://www.arisia.org/Code-of-Conduct

Every year we get a few people complaining about the CoC, including one person (whom I shall call Complaining Person or CP) who recently asserted that it was one reason they don't go to Arisia. Now, I'm an old white dude myself. I've been to every Arisia since #2 and worked most of them. And Old White Dude drwex gets it.

CP is right - a Code of Conduct you don't agree with, or don't think will be enforced fairly, is a very fine and valid reason not to attend a gathering, be it a SF/F convention or other. Old White Dude drwex does not need any CoC - I move within a big sturdy privilege bubble and I don't get upset anymore when people call me "faggot" because I wear skirts or kilts, nor do I have strangers trying to stare down my shirt or making unwanted and prolonged physical contact with me.

You know who needs this Code of Conduct? My female-bodied partner. My trans children. My friends whose skin colors, hair styles, names, gender expressions, and facial appearances mark them indelibly as Other and for whom response to Other-ness is often frightening, intimidating, excluding, demeaning, or downright harmful.

I mentioned that I'd worked "most" of the cons. I stopped working, for a time, but came back in part because Arisia was making a Code of Conduct and trying to create a better place. Arisia next year will have been operational for 30 years. That's a remarkable run for any convention and I don't see any practical reason it couldn't go on for another 30. I won't be around then, I suspect. But my kids will be, and maybe they'll do what I did - wheel their babies out of the hotel room early in the morning so Active Kid can get some noisy time and not wake the sleeping parent. I came back to Arisia to help build the convention I want to pass on to my kids. I'm still doing it, and the CoC plus supporting structures are foundational pillars of that.

Another thing Complaining Person objected to is that "only some" behavior that violates the CoC gets dealt with. Again, CP is right. We don't deal with violations we don't know about. If CP reported a CoC violation and didn't get a good response from us, we owe CP an apology and to do better in the future. This year, Arisia implemented an Incident Response Team (IRT) structure based on our past experience and experiences at a Worldcon. The IRT is to try improving how we find out about, how we record, and how we respond to incidents.

The IRT isn't perfect. I have concerns about it; I've expressed those concerns. I can say with confidence that everyone in Arisia, from the Conchairs on down and from the Corporate President & VP heard my concerns and responded seriously to them. Some changes have been made. I think more need to be made and I plan to continue working with people on this so by Arisia 2019 we can get some improvements implemented.

Complaining Person is right, we let some things go that should not be let go. Sometimes we know about incidents and don't respond properly. Sometimes we drop the ball on follow-up, or on caring for people who've been subject to CoC-violating behavior. Sometimes we have bad judgment. Arisia isn't a monolithic black box - it's a complex and often self-contradictory mass of individual people and I don't think I've ever seen anything this complex function in an error-free way. That's not an excuse, that's just a fact of life, especially in an all-volunteer organization. As I said, we owe it to every past, present, and future attendee to do better.

There's no good ending to this post because the story isn't over. I respect Complaining Person's choice, even as I disagree with it. I don't know how we could resolve our disagreement. So I'll close with this, which I said last Arisia post: sometimes people are why we get to have nice things.

See some of you tomorrow...

Comments

[gingicat]

Is CP against all Codes of Conduct, or specific items on this one?

[drwex]

They were not specific - it was a very short message. I'm sure you could find it if you tried but I would rather not mention the individual's name as I don't think that's the point.

[gingicat]

Totally not the point. I was wondering if they feel themselves exempt from such codes or whether they were objecting to a particular item (sleeping in public areas? vending without permission?).

[drwex]

CP stated that "...only some kinds of insults and only some expressions of preference" are treated as CoC violations.

I think they have a beef with Arisia since the con was name-checked but likely they'd have similar objections to other such documents

[reedrover]

since the con was name-checked

I don't understand what this means.

[drwex]

It means that the person used the convention's name in the remarks, which makes it easier to search for.

[reedrover]

Thanks!

[dcltdw]

I think the IRT lighting a few people on fire, pour encourager les autres, would be a fine thing. Which makes me wonder: does the IRT have the authority to, on the spot, kick someone out?

Then again, I should check myself: I've never served in this kind of capacity, so maybe my "clever" idea is just such a load of horseshit. But I think my followup question is still valid, and I wonder if Arisia or (say) WisCon ever games through awful scenarios, just to make sure the relevant people on staff know who should be pulling which triggers when.

[drwex]

Not per se, no. The IRT's job is to be available to document and then escalate. Decisions like that have to be taken at either the Chair or corporate levels. IRT reports to Chair and Corporate has designees who review the reports afterward.

I don't have any insight into how WisCon handles things. I know Arisia offers specific training in reporting for IRT members but that's all I know.

One of my complaints about where we are right now is that a number of things like emergency procedures remain "tribal knowledge" and aren't well formalized or available to new staffers. I also want to see us take more serious moves toward training people in conflict de-escalation.

[dcltdw]

and aren't well formalized or available to new staffers

Or attendees! I would think that there'd be a high value in "these are scenarios that happened at Arisia in the past few years or at recent cons, and this is how ideally they'd play out" being public knowledge. Being transparent to attendees then means that staff knows there's a higher standard in play of what they'll be held accountable to.

That said, I am armchair quarterbacking, whiiiiiich okay. Not invalid, but I want to make sure I'm not doing the "LOL SO EASY" stupid thing - I think I'm not, but maybe I'm skating near it.

[drwex]

I suspect the more specific things get the harder it'll be. We also have to take into account that people who report incidents may not want things publicized. It's common for things to happen between people who know each other and who may have to face bumping into each other in public parts of the con.

When we did the BARCC training this year the roleplay scenarios were developed in conjunction with staff so there was a high level of realism in them. But I'm hesitant to say more explicit things publicly, as Arisia. Individuals are always free to tell their stories.

IRT is a subject of high interest to a lot of staff this year. I encourage you to attend one of the feedback sessions at con and give your input directly to those folk. (https://www.arisia.org/Meetings)

[dcltdw]

Ah yes, agreement on many points here. I'd heard of the BARCC training and applauded such - I was interested, but I think it was scheduled on a Thu night. (If I recall correctly, on one of the checkpoint nights for our show, so punting that as show director was something I was/am super reluctant to do. Never say never, but for all intents and purposes, yeah, never gonna happen.)

[dcltdw]

Completely separate from my other comment: thanks for putting in a gazillion hours into the con, and specifically, thanks for trying to make it a safer space.

[drwex]

Yr welcome.

[reedrover]

The volunteers who are the multiheaded beast of burden are the blessing and the curse of all large events. I'm glad you have good ones, and I'm glad that the group as a group is moving into the future in a positive and inclusive way. Yes, things will go wrong, and yes feelings will be hurt. There is no avoiding pain for everyone. The point is to work towards minimization of the hurts every year.

"ok, we learned X, so let's work on avoiding X" sounds facile, but every X added to the stack is one less time history repeats. And often, solving X gives everyone the tools to solve the peripheries of X and spread the safety, inclusiveness, help, and cheer a little farther.

[quietann]

Thank you!

[rmd]

I respect Complaining Person's choice, even as I disagree with it.

Yep. I don't know who it is, but I know enough people that fall into the same category.