Objective

This Code of Conduct aims to ensure a friendly, safe, and non-discriminatory environment for all participants in the Champaca Book Club organized by Champaca Bookstore. 

This code of conduct applies to all Champaca Book Club community spaces, including main and auxiliary events, meetings, mailing lists, and informal gatherings. Violations of the CoC may invite sanctions, temporary ban or expulsion from community spaces. 

Champaca maintains a zero-tolerance policy towards harassment of participants in any form. Participants are responsible for knowing and abiding by these rules, and encouraged to help us create a welcoming and positive experience for all.

Guidelines on Diversity 

In the interest of fostering an open and welcoming community, we are committed to making participation in the Champaca Book Club a respectful and harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sex, sexual orientation, disability, neuroatypicality, physical appearance, body size, race, caste, ethnicity, national origin, age, political affiliation, or religion. This list is not exhaustive and the Response committee reserves the right to make judgements on what constitutes such categories. 

Guidelines on Participant and Community Behavior 

Do

1. Be polite and considerate with all participants 
2. Limit discussions to books and do not spam the forum with messages/links/invites or any such material unless directly related to the book club. 
3. Be considerate with your actions and words and sensitive to their effects on all participants 
4. Be patient and a good listener when others are speaking. Keep questions till after the speaker has completed speaking and do not interrupt speakers.  
5. Resolve disagreements in a civil and respectful manner, and approach the organisers or Response committee members if needed. 
6. Obtain participant’s consent before posting anything that may involve them on social media 
7. Express your discomfort if you find yourself in a situation you deem to be uncomfortable 
8. Be mindful of behaviour in the presence of minors 
9. Point out or report harassment, discrimination, or personal attacks when it happens to the Response Committee (see section on reporting).

Don’t 

1. Engage in any behaviour deemed to be unacceptable (see section on unacceptable behaviour) 
2. Undertake any form of harassment or discrimination against any organiser or participants. 
3. Talk over another participant or ignore another participant’s question. 
4. Force members to participate in the conversation if they do not wish to. 

Unacceptable Behaviour 

Harassment and other types of inappropriate behavior are unacceptable in all public and private spaces linked with the Champaca Book Club. Examples include but are not limited to:

• Personal attacks, violence, threats of violence, threats of legal action, or deliberate intimidation.
• Offensive, derogatory, or discriminatory comments.
• Gratuitous or off-topic use of sexual language or imagery.
• Inappropriate or unwanted attention, touching, or physical contact (sexual or otherwise).
• Inappropriate or unwanted public or private communication, following, or any form of stalking.
• Unwanted photography or recording.
• Disclosure of a person's identity or other private information without their consent. Disclosure of some identifying information is not consent to disclose other identifying information.
• Inappropriate or unwanted publication of private communication. Publishing or reporting private communication or personally identifying information for the purposes of reporting harassment (as explained here) and/or in the case of whistleblowing, is acceptable.
• Harming the discussion or community with methods such as sustained disruption, interruption, or blocking of community collaboration (i.e. trolling).
• Discrimination, particularly against marginalized and otherwise underrepresented groups. Targeted outreach to such groups is allowed and encouraged.
• Using the code of conduct system for purposes other than reporting genuine violations of the code of conduct (e.g., retaliating against a reporter or victim by filing a report claiming their response was harassment).
• Attempting to circumvent a decision of the Committee or appeals body, e.g. unblocking someone during a period the Committee banned them.

Reporting 

The Book Club will have a Response Committee, whose purpose is to ensure that the terms of this CoC are adhered to in all discussions. 

Individuals who are or have experienced or observed any unacceptable behaviour by a participant, organiser or community member are expected to follow these steps: 

1. Ask the person who is behaving unacceptably to stop. Make them aware of this Code of Conduct.
2. Report the problem to the Response Committee

 You can report the problem to hello@champaca.in.

Anonymous feedback can also be provided through the link here.

Any such complaint will be responded to as promptly as possible and the response team will take note of the complaint, discuss the matter and look to resolve the issue in a manner that is safe and respectful for all parties involved. We will not name the victim without their explicit consent. If a complaint is brought against a member of the response team, the individual will be recused from handling the incident. The standards for the process will not in any way be lowered in case of a complaint against an organiser or Response Committee member. 

In order to protect volunteers from abuse and burnout, we reserve the right to reject any report we believe to have been made in bad faith, or to silence legitimate criticisms.

Please note that Champaca will prioritise marginalised individual’s safety over privileged people’s comfort. The Response Committee reserves the right to not act on complaints including but not limited to: Reverse -ism (Reverse Racism, Reverse Casteism, Reverse Sexism, etc.), reasonable communication of boundaries (e.g. go away, leave me alone), tone policing or criticisms of oppressive behaviors and ideas. 

Consequences

Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately. The Response Team may also take any other action they deem appropriate, up to and including expulsion from all community spaces during the event, and identification of the participant as a harasser to other participants or the general public.

 

 

This code of conduct was compiled from Wikimedia policies on friendly space and keeping events safe (text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License); and the Community Anti-Harassment Policy on Geek Feminism Wiki (available under the Creative Commons Zero license)

Please see: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Code_of_Conduct, 

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Keeping_events_safe https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_2016/Code_of_Conduct

http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Community_anti-harassment/Policy