Participant Contract: #MeToo Workshop, SAA 2020
Understanding that this workshop will cover sensitive and even triggering content, this document lays out ground rules and expectations for workshop leaders, participants, and auditors. Its intention is to create a space in which everyone can feel safe to discuss, experiment, and grapple with difficult material. As such, it aims to enable meaningful and respectful engagement for everyone in the room.
15 April Update: SOCIAL MEDIA GUIDELINES
While we welcome you to share links to open sections of the workshop website, and general information about the session, we ask that you do not share site passwords, or any password protected workshop materials including uploaded documents, links to private drives, or discussion comments on social media. Additionally, please do not circulate, print, or quote materials or use workshop materials in other contexts without prior consent of their authors.
1 April Update:
As our workshop transitions to its online-only format, we expect all participants to uphold the terms of inclusivity, safety, and consent in all online work. Workshop leaders will continue to model the inclusive behaviour we wish to facilitate in our collective online work and will protect the work and privacy of participants. Workshop materials published on this site will be released only with permission of participants. We will release an updated social media policy by 14 April 2020 and ask all participants, leaders, and auditors to respect the stated wishes of the group around the circulation of workshop discussion beyond this website.
Auditors wishing to participate in our online discussion should contact Nora (nora.j.williams@gmail.com) or Erin (Erin.Julian@roehampton.ac.uk) for the discussion page password. All approved auditors will be asked to agree to uphold the terms of our participant contract. We also request auditors follow our accessibility guidelines where they are able.
General Guidelines
We pledge, collectively, to enter the room in the spirit of curiosity, generosity, and respect for each other.
We agree to address all participants with our preferred names and pronouns.
We will not tolerate abusive, violent, or exclusive language or behaviour in the room or in the pre-work. We are empowered to call each other out where necessary.
Given the sensitive nature of the workshop topic, we will not ask for disclosures of colleagues’ experiences with sexual violence. Where such disclosures are offered voluntarily, we will not push for more details than the survivor wishes to share. We will believe survivors who choose to share their stories.
We agree to uphold any requests for privacy/anonymity that participants or auditors may make during the course of discussion, particularly in moments of conflict resolution. We will not carry information shared during these moments beyond the bounds of the workshop.
We agree to support a porous room, in which participants/auditors may freely enter or leave for any reason, as they deem necessary.
We will agree upon social media sharing guidelines in person at the beginning of the workshop.
Expectations for Workshop Leaders
Workshop leaders will abide by the General Guidelines laid out above.
In addition, Erin and Nora pledge to facilitate an inclusive and welcoming space to the best of their ability.
Participants and auditors can expect workshop leaders to hold themselves to a high standard of inclusive language and thoughtful facilitation, and to model the behaviour they expect to see from others in the room.
While we collectively expect difficult and even heated conversations to take place, given the topic of the workshop, this must always adhere to the guidelines laid out in this contract and come from a place of open-mindedness and mutual respect. Where this is not the case, the workshop leaders are empowered to use their discretion to intervene. Participants and auditors can expect the workshop leaders to step in with a quiet word at the first instance of exclusive or violent language, and with stronger interventions if the situation escalates. Members of the SAA Executive Committee and the SAAllies will be present to support us in this respect.
Workshop leaders are available by email to discuss any issues arising that participants do not wish to raise publicly, including comments on this document.
Expectations for Participants
We expect participants to abide by the General Guidelines laid out above.
In addition, we ask that participants respect each others’ experiences of exercises and discussions, and that they are sensitive to others’ boundaries and comfort levels when working together. Requests to stop or scale back an activity or line of discussion (as well as body language indicating discomfort) should be taken seriously. No one should ever need to repeat a “no” in the workshop or in the pre-work.
Expectations for Auditors
We expect auditors to abide by the General Guidelines laid out above.
We will make this contract available in hard copy and as a web link for auditors at the beginning of the workshop, and endeavour to bring it to latercomers’ attention as soon as possible after they arrive. Auditors should feel free to share the agreement with each other if they are in a position to do so.
While we will encourage a higher-than-normal level of involvement from auditors, we wish to empower you to participate in the workshop as much or as little as makes sense for you and your individual needs.