What Inclusion Means to Us

Everyone should have access to the tools that make their work better, more fulfilling, more humane. We want Raw Signal Group spaces to be accessible and inviting for anyone earnestly focused on doing the work. And we recognize that much of our own background and opportunity came from a place of privilege that many don’t have access to. We want to do better. And for us, that means several things:

  • All Raw Signal spaces have a Code of Conduct (see below) that we require all participants to read in advance, and adhere to throughout.

  • When it comes to ticketed events, we often set aside 10% of our total ticket pool for subsidized tickets, prioritizing underrepresented and economically disadvantaged individuals. If you want to attend but feel that you’ll need a subsidized ticket to be able to do so, email us.

  • Our venues have accessible entrances, and we will use amplified sound for those with hearing difficulties. You will be asked about any other accommodations you may need during registration.

  • When a venue’s restrooms are gendered, we encourage you to use whichever one feels appropriate to you.

Finally we acknowledge, with gratitude, that Raw Signal Group is a business founded by settlers on land that has been the home of Indigenous people for 40,000 years. This land is the territory of the Huron-Wendat, the Petun, the Seneca, and the Mississaugas of the Credit River, and is part of the Dish With One Spoon wampum belt covenant. We recognize that we have a duty under this covenant to care for the land we share and its inhabitants, and that duty must be expressed in the actions we take.

Code of Conduct

Every space has rules. If you are participating in a space that Raw Signal hosts — corporate trainings, live events, online programs, and the RSG alum Slack — these are our rules. These rules apply to everyone. We require attendees, speakers, performers, patrons (sponsors), volunteers, and staff to read and agree to these rules in order to participate.

The short story is this: We work hard to create spaces that let people do some hard work together — sometimes with colleagues and sometimes with strangers. It’s amazing work, and we’ve seen it be transformative for many leaders over the years. But that work can’t happen if people feel unsafe.

Raw Signal Group is dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neurotype, physical appearance, body, age, race, ethnicity, nationality, language, or religion. We do not tolerate harassment of participants in any form.

Anyone who violates this Code of Conduct may be sanctioned or expelled from these spaces at the discretion of the Raw Signal Group partners. Refunds will not be given.

HARASSMENT

When we say harassment, we mean things like:

  • Offensive comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neurotype, physical appearance, body, age, race, ethnicity, nationality, language, or religion

  • Unwelcome comments regarding a person’s lifestyle choices and practices, including those related to food, health, parenting, drugs, and employment

  • Deliberate misgendering or use of ‘dead’ or rejected names

  • Sexual images or behaviour in spaces where they’re not appropriate

  • Physical contact and simulated physical contact (eg, textual descriptions like “hug” or “backrub”) without consent or after a request to stop

  • Threats of violence or incitement of violence towards any individual, including encouraging a person to commit suicide or to engage in self-harm

  • Deliberate intimidation

  • Stalking or following

  • Harassing photography or recording, including logging online activity for harassment purposes

  • Sustained disruption of discussion

  • Unwelcome sexual attention

  • Pattern of inappropriate social contact, such as requesting/assuming inappropriate levels of intimacy with others

  • Continued one-on-one communication after requests to cease

  • Deliberate “outing” of any aspect of a person’s identity without their consent except as necessary to protect other community members or other vulnerable people from intentional abuse

  • Publication of non-harassing private communication without consent by the involved parties

Raw Signal spaces will prioritize marginalized people’s safety over privileged people’s comfort. Raw Signal Group reserves the right not to act on complaints regarding:

  • ‘Reverse’ -isms, including ‘reverse racism,’ ‘reverse sexism,’ and ‘cisphobia’

  • Reasonable communication of boundaries, such as “leave me alone,” “go away,” or “I’m not discussing this with you.”

  • Communicating in a ‘tone’ you don’t find congenial

  • Criticizing racist, sexist, cissexist, or otherwise oppressive behavior or assumptions

CONSEQUENCES

Participants asked to stop any harassing behaviour are expected to comply immediately. We understand that it might be surprising to be asked to stop, that you might not have thought you were out of line, and might be tempted to debate the point — please don’t. In the moment that you’re asked to stop, our expectation is that you’ll stop immediately and permanently.

If a participant engages in harassing behaviour, Raw Signal Group may take any action we deem appropriate, up to and including expulsion from all Raw Signal Group spaces and identification of the participant as a harasser to other event participants or the general public.

REPORTING AND ENFORCEMENT

If you are being harassed by someone in a Raw Signal space, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, we want to hear about. We would much rather hear too soon than too late. You can contact us via email at events@rawsignal.ca or, if it involves our online alum community, find us on Slack. For live events, please contact any member of our staff, volunteer or security team. Our team will be identified at the beginning of each event, and will be trained in how to address and report any incidents that attendees bring to their attention.

If the person who is harassing you is a member of staff or a volunteer, they will recuse themselves from any involvement in the handling or reporting of the incident.

All reports will be handled confidentially. We will respond as promptly as we can. While we will typically communicate with all parties to a report, our response will prioritize the safety of the person experiencing harassment over the comfort or hurt feelings of others.

Privacy

RSG spaces are private spaces unless we expressly say otherwise. Having said that, while we may have signed confidentiality agreements with many of your employers, you don’t have them with each other. So we ask you to respect the privacy and confidentiality of others, but also encourage you to protect any IP or legally-protected information you’re not able to safely disclose. Any discussion and disclosure in an RSG space is voluntary; keep yourself safe and on the right side of your NDA.

Our spaces run on Vegas Rules (“what happens here stays here.”) Unless otherwise stated, clearly and in advance, we won't record our sessions, and we don't allow you to, either. If you want to publicly disclose specific content, you need to get that permission explicitly from the originator of the content.

Mostly Not Here To Be Sold

The spaces and communities that RSG hosts are mostly not a place for commercial activity, outside of situations where that’s explicitly expected. For instance:

  • RSG staff will mention other programs (our own, or those of third parties) in cases where we believe it might be a helpful adjunct to the work we’re doing together.

  • In exercises where we ask you to explain your job or introduce yourself to another participant, you should feel free to be proud of the work you do, but stop short of pitching. You can invite individuals to follow up privately if they’d like to know more.

  • In our alum Slack community, there are several channels expressly devoted to some form of self- or org-promotion. Some examples:

    • #events - fine to promote your own events, even if they are paid

    • #imhiring - fair game to post jobs you're trying to hire from, fair game for others in the Slack to apply

    • #i_made_something - everyone here has opted in to seeing the new thing you made

You are allowed to care about your business and see opportunities for it to help people. You are allowed to engage privately with anyone who expresses interest in working with you or your company. But your participation in an RSG space should not be mostly about selling things. If you are wondering where you can post or talk about commercial things, ask.

Thank Yous

Thank you to every participant in an RSG program for helping to make our spaces the respectful and inclusive community that it is.

This policy is based in large part on the XOXO Festival’s 2018 CoC, and we are grateful beyond measure for their choice to license their policy under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This policy is likewise licensed CC-BY.

The XOXO version of the policy includes the following acknowledgements to which we now add our own profound thanks:

This policy was based on resources provided by Geek Feminism, and borrows heavily from similar open source policies authored by JSConf AU and Django.

Thank you also to Ashe Dryden and Karolina Szczur for their advice and support.

Earlier versions of this policy also drew heavily on work of the Rands Leadership Slack and their code of conduct.