This procedure has been adopted from the Ada Initiative's guide titled "Conference anti-harassment/Responding to Reports”.
Be sure to have a good understanding of our Code of Conduct policy, which can be found here: https://us.pycon.org/2013/about/code-of-conduct/
Also have a good understanding of what is expected from an attendee that wants to report a harassment incident. These guidelines can be found here: /2013/about/code-of-conduct/harassment-incidents/
Try to get as much of the incident in written form by the reporter. If you cannot, transcribe it yourself as it was told to you. The important information to gather include the following:
Prepare an initial response to the incident. This initial response is very important and will set the tone for PyCon. Depending on the severity/details of the incident, please follow these guidelines:
There are also some guidelines as to what not to do as an initial response:
Once something is reported to a staff member, immediately meet with the conference chair and/or event coordinator. The main objectives of this meeting is to find out the following:
After the staff meeting and discussion, have a staff member (preferably the conference chair or event coordinator if available) communicate with the alleged harasser. Make sure to inform them of what has been reported about them.
Allow the alleged harasser to give their side of the story to the staff. After this point, if report stands, let the alleged harasser know what actions will be taken against them.
Some things for the staff to consider when dealing with Code of Conduct offenders:
Give accused attendees a place to appeal to if there is one, but in the meantime the report stands. Keep in mind that it is not a good idea to encourage an apology from the harasser.
It is very important how we deal with the incident publicly. Our policy is to make sure that everyone aware of the initial incident is also made aware that it is not according to policy and that official action has been taken - while still respecting the privacy of individual attendees. When speaking to individuals (those who are aware of the incident, but were not involved with the incident) about the incident it is a good idea to keep the details out.
Depending on the incident, the conference chair or his designate may decide to make one or more public announcements. If necessary, this will be done with a short announcement either during the plenary and/or through other channels. No one other than the conference chair or someone delegated authority from the conference chair should make any announcements.
If some attendees were angered by the incident, it is best to apologize to them that the incident occurred to begin with. If there are residual hard feelings, suggest to them to write an email to the conference chair or to the event coordinator. It will be dealt with accordingly.
A listing of PyCon staff is located here, including contact phone numbers. If at all possible, all reports should be made directly to Ewa Jodlowska (Event Coordinator) or Jesse Noller (PyCon Chair).