FOIA Fest Code of Conduct

FOIA FEST EVENT SAFETY CONTACT: If you would like to make any reports, please email foiafest24@gmail.com.

The Chicago Headline Club is committed to providing a welcoming and harassment-free environment for participants of all races, gender and trans statuses, sexual orientations, physical abilities, physical appearances, and beliefs. We’ve adopted this code of conduct not because we expect bad behavior from our community—which, in our experience, is overwhelmingly kind and civil—but because we believe a clear code of conduct is one necessary part of building a respectful community space.

FOIA Fest participants agree to:

  • Be considerate in speech and actions, and actively seek to acknowledge and respect the boundaries of fellow attendees.
  • Refrain from demeaning, discriminatory, or harassing behavior and speech. Harassment includes, but is not limited to: deliberate intimidation; stalking; unwanted photography or recording; sustained or willful disruption of talks or other events; inappropriate physical contact; use of sexual or discriminatory imagery, comments, or jokes; and unwelcome sexual attention. If you feel that someone has harassed you or otherwise treated you inappropriately, please alert any member of the event team. Reports can be made via the team phone/text line.
  • Take care of each other. Alert a member of the conference team if you notice a dangerous situation, someone in distress, or violations of this code of conduct, even if they seem inconsequential.

If any attendee engages in harassing behavior, the event organizers may take any lawful action we deem appropriate, including but not limited to warning the individual or asking the individual to leave the conference. (If you feel you have been unfairly accused of violating this code of conduct, you should contact the event team with a concise description of your grievance; any grievances filed will be considered by the FOIA Fest organizing team.)

This code of conduct covers the entirety of any FOIA Fest event. Before, during, and after the event, the event staff is available at 312-380-5163‬ if you see or experience an issue. In addition, during an event you can contact Matt Kiefer, Chicago Headline Club Vice President of FOIA at foiafestchicago@gmail.com. 

We welcome your feedback on this and every other aspect of our events, and we thank you for working with us to make it a safe, enjoyable, and friendly experience for everyone who participates.

Above text is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Credit to OpenNews for writing the Code of Conduct, which is borrowed from the Citizen Code of Conduct, the Django Project’s code of conduct and Theorizing the Web code of conduct, with general thanks to the Ada Initiative’s “how to design a code of conduct for your community.”