Meetup Code of Conduct

The deed (the short version):

The Montreal AI Ethics Institute is dedicated to providing a harassment-free event experience for everyone regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age or religion. Everyone’s voice is valued. Additionally, we welcome people of all academic and professional backgrounds as well as levels of expertise in AI. We do not tolerate harassment of event attendees in any form. Sexual language and imagery are not appropriate for any event. Event attendees violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from the event at the discretion of the event organizers.

Rules to follow:

1. Any content proposed or sent to the chat must be relevant and intended to generate a discussion in line with the meetup theme.
2. Self-authored content sharing is permitted, so long as it is relevant and not shared solely for self-promotional means.
3. Our meetups are not intended to provide a platform or audience for the promotion of your own work. The meetup is intended to help you grow your knowledge and meet like-minded people.

Inclusion and diversity:

The Montreal AI Ethics Institute’s community is a diverse and vibrant one; we welcome and encourage participation by everyone. We also support a healthy dose of debate in conversations, as long as it’s respectful and constructive.

Everyone is welcome regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age, religion, academic experience, professional background, or level of AI expertise.

Breakout room recordings:

1. The breakout room discussions will be recorded. These are solely to enable us to be able to transcribe the video in order to capture the arguments being presented to better inform the subsequent blog post summary of the session. The recording is not passed on to any third party and is only viewed by the MAIEI team. The recording will be deleted once the transcription is completed. Attributions to individuals for their comments will not be made without their explicit permission.

Harassment:

Harassment and other code of conduct violations reduce the value of our event for everyone. We want you to be safe and happy at our event. People like you make our event a better place.

Harassment includes:

1. Offensive comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neuro(a)typicality, physical appearance, body size, age, race, or religion.
2. Unwelcome comments regarding a person’s lifestyle choices and practices, including those related to food, health, parenting, drugs, and employment.
3. Deliberate misgendering or use of ‘dead’ or rejected names.
4. Gratuitous or off-topic sexual images or behaviour in spaces where they’re not appropriate.
5. Physical contact and simulated physical contact (eg, textual descriptions like “hug” or “backrub”) without consent or after a request to stop.
6. Threats of violence.
7. Incitement of violence towards any individual, including encouraging a person to commit suicide or to engage in self-harm.
8. Deliberate intimidation.
9. Stalking or following.
10. Harassing photography or recording, including logging online activity for harassment purposes.
11. Sustained disruption of discussion.
12. Unwelcome sexual attention.
13. Pattern of inappropriate social contact, such as requesting/assuming inappropriate levels of intimacy with others
14. Continued one-on-one communication after requests to cease.
15. Deliberate “outing” of any aspect of a person’s identity without their consent except as necessary to protect vulnerable people from intentional abuse.
16. Publication of non-harassing private communication.

Engaging in any of the behaviours will lead to action by the MAIEI team which includes, but is not limited to, expulsion from that event and ban from attending future events to maintain a healthy atmosphere for our community.

Reporting:

1. If someone makes you or anyone else feel unsafe or unwelcome, please report it as soon as possible. 
2. If you are being harassed by a member of the MAIEI team, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact any member of the MAIEI team through a direct message to the page’s social media, or through the emails found on our website. Reporting to the page’s email can be done at [email protected] , anonymous reporting can be done here 
3. If the person who is harassing you is on the team, they will recuse themselves from handling your incident. We will respond as promptly as we can.
4. Event staff will assist those experiencing harassment to feel safe for the duration of the meetup.

Expected Behaviour:

1. Please be prompt and on-time in joining the session as it helps to smoothen the facilitation of the event and improves the experience for all participants.
2. Be friendly and patient.
3. Be welcoming. We strive to be a community that welcomes and supports people of all backgrounds and identities. This includes, but is not limited to members of any race, ethnicity, culture, national origin, color, immigration status, social and economic class, educational level, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, age, size, family status, political belief, religion, and mental and physical ability.
4. We encourage you to take some time prior to the session to familiarize yourself with the assigned readings. This is essential in respecting the efforts of other participants so that the discussions are focused and relevant.
5. Allow the facilitators to moderate the conversation flow so that we can through all the questions within the time allotted for discussion.
6. Be considerate. Your ideas can be used by other people, and you in turn will depend on the ideas of others. Any decision you take will affect users and colleagues, and you should take those consequences into account when making decisions. Remember that we’re a world-wide community, so you might not be communicating in someone else’s primary language.
7. Be respectful. Not all of us will agree all the time, but disagreement is no excuse for poor behavior and poor manners. We might all experience some frustration now and then, but we cannot allow that frustration to turn into a personal attack. It’s important to remember that a community where people feel uncomfortable or threatened is not a productive one. Meetup participants should be respectful when dealing with other participants.
8. Be careful in the words that you choose. Do not insult or put down other participants.
9. When we disagree, try to understand why. Disagreements, both social and technical, happen all the time and meetups are no exception. It is important that we resolve disagreements and differing views constructively. Remember that we’re different. The benefits of the meetups come from the variety of backgrounds present, with people attending from all over the world. Different people have different perspectives on issues. Being unable to understand why someone holds a viewpoint doesn’t mean that they’re wrong.
10. Content and comments that have been identified as objectionable, inappropriate, or off-topic will be subject to deletion by channel moderators/facilitators. Posters will receive a warning and risk being blocked from the channel if unacceptable behavior persists.

Unacceptable behaviour:

1. Violence, threats of violence or violent language directed against another person.
2. Sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist or otherwise discriminatory jokes, language, and/or images.
3. Posting or displaying sexually explicit or violent material.
4. Posting or threatening to post other people’s personally identifying information (“doxing”).
5. Personal insults, particularly those related to gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, or disability.
6. Inappropriate photography or recording. (Our sessions are not recorded) 
7. Unwelcome sexual attention. This includes, but is not limited to, sexualized comments or jokes and unwelcome sexual advances.
8. Deliberate intimidation, stalking or following (online or in person).
9. Advocating for, or encouraging, any of the above behavior.
10. Sustained disruption of community events, including talks, presentations, and conversations.

Consequences of inappropriate behaviour:

Unacceptable behavior from any community member and those with decision-making authority will not be tolerated.

We expect participants to follow this code of conduct on all channels of communication (including private messages) and platforms related to the event. Anyone asked to stop unacceptable behavior is expected to comply immediately.

If a community member engages in unacceptable behavior, the community organizers may take any action they deem appropriate: this could include giving a warning to the offending party, removing the offending party from the virtual event, and/or a temporary ban or permanent expulsion from the community.

Since we run a fairly large community with people from diverse social, economic, and geographical backgrounds, we ask you to utilize this space as a respectful discussion forum, keeping an open mind and heart is crucial!

Best Practices:

1. Please only mention or send material which you intend to generate a discussion with.
2. Please keep yourself muted until you want to speak in order to minimise any background noise.
3. Please keep your video on if you’re comfortable so the facilitator can gauge when you want to say something, and provide some much needed face-to-face interaction!
4. If you have something to say, but cannot find the opportunity to say it, kindly message the facilitators privately in order to make them aware and allow them to direct the conversation to you if desired.
5. Please use the chat function appropriately to contribute to the discussion and not as a means to posting harmful or irrelevant content.
6. The meetup is intended for whole room participation, so being aware of not dominating the conversation will help make the experience beneficial for all.
7. If you have any technical issues, let the staff know (either spoken or written).

How to make the most of the meetup:

1. Engage with the discussions being had and the messages being sent! Whether asking a question or giving your support to a message in the chat, nothing is better for expanding your knowledge than engaging in discussion!
2. Add the meetup to your calendar in order to receive email notifications on event updates and reminders!
3. Make sure to try and build connections! Interacting with participants is a great way to meet like-minded people and carry on the discussion after the session ends!

Thank you for taking the time to familiarise yourself with our Code of Conduct. Should you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Connor Wright.

¹ This Code of Conduct borrows a number of elements from the Creative Commons Slack Code of Conduct and the Content + UX Slack Group.