Aug 08 2013
Convention Anti-Harassment Policies
In recent weeks the SF&F blogosphere has spent a lot of time talking about anti-harassment policies at conventions. In particular John Scalzi adopted a minimum requirements policy that he will demand of any convention that invites him to attend. SFWA has suggested that its members might wish to adopt similar policies.
SFSFC does not run conventions itself. Rather it charters other bodies to run conventions under its corporate umbrella. These conventions can vary considerably in size, from 100-person relaxacons to Worldcons with thousands of attendees. Crafting a single policy to suit all types and sizes of convention would not be easy. Nevertheless, SFSFC requires all its conventions to be safe and welcoming spaces. To this end, in 2012 we adopted general guidelines for anti-harassment policies that all chartered conventions much use to develop their own policies. It is our belief that following these guidelines will enable a convention to abide by the requirements set by John Scalzi and others.
To date, only one convention has taken place under that policy. That was Westercon 66. Their code of conduct can be found here .
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