How to Report a Code of Conduct Violation

Owned by Heather Greer Klein
Last updated: May 25, 2023
3 min read

This document provides high-level information for understanding and reporting violations of the Samvera Code of Conduct and Anti-Harassment Policy. This document is intended as an interface to existing documents, processes and people responsible for ensuring the Samvera Community is healthy and inclusive for all.

When to Report

Please report all incidents where someone has engaged in behavior that may be a violation of our Code of Conduct or Anti-Harassment Policy, or which is otherwise making you or others feel unsafe, unwelcome, or uncomfortable.

How to Give a Report

If you believe someone is in physical danger, call your local emergency number.

If you have a report by and about a community member (for example, the report is made by one community member about another community member), then you should report it to incident-responders@samvera.org.

If someone reports an incident to youā€¦

  • Do not question, or judge their experience.

  • Do not invite them to withdraw the incident report.

  • Do not promise any particular response.

  • Do let them know that for Samveraā€™s policy to be impactful, reports should go through incident-responders@samvera.org. If they do not feel comfortable filing the report themselves, you may do so.

Samvera Community Leaders

If a Board member is informed about a potential Code of Conduct and Anti-Harassment Policy violation, they are expected to immediately report the incident to incident-responders@samvera.org, even if the initial reporter will also file a report. Samvera Board members are not permitted to investigate complaints on their own.

What to Expect When Reporting an Incident

You will be asked for the following information:

  • Name(s) of the people involved.

  • If names are unknown, use descriptions and any identifiable info such as appearance, role, handle, project/community affiliation.

  • Description of incident, including memorable dates, events, and locations.

  • Relationship of the reporter to the victim(s), if the victim is not reporting for themself.

If you want to make an anonymous report, understand that without contact information, it may not be difficult to proceed with the investigation and update you when appropriate.

Note the person taking the report may be required by law to disclose what they know, for instance if they are served a subpoena.

What Happens Next

Investigation

The report will be turned over to the Incident Response Team. A team member will be identified to lead the investigation; they or a different Response Team member will be designated as your Point of Contact while the investigation is open.

All reports are reviewed and responded to based on the nature of the report. We try to provide reasonably timed updates to you, as the reporter, and any others involved or who witnessed the incident during the open investigation.

Reports are handled discretely and privately, and will only be shared with the people who can investigate, respond, and advise. As part of this investigation, it may be necessary for some information to be disclosed to others, for example, to key stakeholders administering communities or events, witnesses, and the wrongdoers. In some cases, such as if the incident occurred in a public forum, the community as a whole may be informed that the issue is being handled by the Incident Response Team.

The Incident Lead will work closely with the rest of the Response Team to determine if the Code of Conduct or Anti-Harassment policy was violated, and if it was, what is an appropriate response and how to implement that response. To the extent the wrongdoer(s) is subject to Samveraā€™s control, appropriate measures will be taken to address the situation. See ā€‹ā€‹Sanctions.

Documentation

At the close of the investigation, all documentation related to the incident report will be turned over to the Samvera Board who is responsible for retaining it as part of the organizationā€™s internal records.

No Retaliation

Samvera does not tolerate retaliation against community members who report concerns under the Code of Conduct and Anti-Harassment Policy in good faith. Acts of retaliation should be reported in the same process as described above.

License

This document includes content forked from Mozillaā€™s How to Report Violations of the Community Participation Guidelines which in turn was forked from the PyCon Code of Conduct Revision 2f4d980 which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

This document is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.