Philly Tech Sistas Code of Conduct

Philly Tech Sistas (PTS) is a community aimed at helping more women of color get involved in the technology field. We expect all participants to be kind, considerate, and respectful within our community. This code of conduct applies to participants, volunteers, and speakers at all PTS events and spaces, online and offline, public and private.

Our Standards

Philly Tech Sistas is dedicated to providing positive experiences at our events for everyone within our community. Examples of behavior that contributes to creating a positive environment include:

  • Using welcoming and inclusive language

  • Being respectful of differing viewpoints and experiences

  • Referring to people by their preferred pronouns and using gender-neutral pronouns when uncertain such as you all, everyone, and friends

  • Gracefully accepting constructive criticism

  • Focusing on what is best for the community

  • Showing empathy towards other community members

We are dedicated to providing a harassment-free community. We will not tolerate harassment in any form.

Harassment includes but not limited to:

  • Offensive comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, race, religion, physical appearance, body size, mental illness and/or disability

  • Threats of violence

  • Use of sexual language or imagery at any time

  • Harassing photography or recording

  • Sustained disruption of talks or events

  • Deliberate intimidation, stalking or following

  • Threats of violence

  • Inappropriate physical contact

  • Unwelcome sexual attention

  • Unwelcome comments regarding a person’s lifestyle choices and practices

  • Advocating for or encouraging any of the above behavior

We expect all community members to be respectful of others, their time, and resources. Being a participant in this community does not guarantee or entitle you to specific help, time or resources from community leaders or participants.

Reporting

If you feel unsafe or unwelcome or notice that someone else is being harassed, please report it as soon as possible. You can make a report by submitting information through our incident report form, sending an email to info@phillytechsistas.org, or speaking with one of the organizers of the event you are attending.

We expect event organizers and volunteers to be alert and take appropriate action to intervene in preventing or stopping harassment and unacceptable behavior.

While this code of conduct applies to Philly Tech Sistas events and spaces, if you are being harassed by a community member outside our community, we still want to know about it. We will take all good-faith reports of harassment by community members seriously. This includes harassment outside our spaces and harassment that took place at any point in time. Philly Tech Sistas reserves the right to refuse an individual’s attendance to PTS events or spaces based on the individual's previous behavior at our events or other non-PTS events and spaces and behavior towards people who are not a part of Philly Tech Sistas.

We will respect confidentiality requests for the purpose of protecting victims of abuse. At our discretion, we may publicly name a person about whom we’ve received harassment complaints, or privately warn third parties about them, if we believe that doing so will increase the safety of community members or the general public. We will not name harassment victims without their affirmative consent.

Consequences

Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately. If a participant engages in harassing behavior, PTS organizers retain the right to take any actions they deem appropriate to keep the community a welcoming environment for all participants. This includes warning the offender or expulsion from the event with no refund (for paid events).

Weapons Policy

No weapons are allowed at Philly Tech Sistas events, including but not limited to explosives (including fireworks), guns, and large knives such as those used for hunting or display, as well as any other item used for the purpose of causing injury or harm to others. Anyone seen in possession of one of these items will be asked to leave immediately.

Attendees are further expected to comply with all state and local laws on this matter.

License

This code of conduct is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. PTS Code of Conduct is based on the KCWiT Code of Conduct, PyCon US Code of Conduct, WiTChat Community Code of Conduct.