Procedure for Making a Code of Conduct Report

When you believe someone is in physical danger, call the appropriate local crisis number, non-emergency number, or police number.

How to Make a Report

If you believe someone has violated the CHAOSS Code of Conduct, we encourage you to report it. If you are unsure whether the incident is a violation, or whether the space where it happened is covered by this Code of Conduct, we still encourage you to report it. We prefer receiving reports, even if no action is taken, to help create a safer community.

You can make a report via email to chaoss-conduct@googlegroups.com.

The email chaoss-conduct@googlegroups.com reaches all and only the CHAOSS Code of Conduct committee members:

  • MaryBlessing Okolie
  • Georg Link
  • Anita Ihuman

How to Make a Report at a CHAOSS Event

At each CHAOSS event, you can make a report by:

If you are at a CHAOSS event, the organizers will be happy to help participants contact security or local law enforcement, provide escorts to an alternate location, or otherwise assist those experiencing harassment to feel safe for the duration of the event. We value your attendance.

You can use the chaoss-conduct@googlegroups.com email to make a report, but responses may be delayed. As you are comfortable, we encourage you to speak with a local organizer for quicker resolution.

Report Data

If you make a report via email or in-person, we hope you can provide us with some information that will help us identify the reported person. If you don’t remember all the details, we still encourage you to make a report.

We encourage you to include the following information in your report:

  • Your contact info (so we can get in touch if follow-up is needed)
  • Date and time of the incident
  • Location of the incident
  • Whether the incident is ongoing
  • Description of the incident
  • Additional circumstances surrounding the incident
  • Other people involved in or witnesses to the incident and their contact information or descriptions

For Physical Event Incidents:

Please include:

  • Any identifying details about the reported person (name, physical appearance, height, clothing, voice accent, or identifying badge information like company name, ribbons, or social media handles)
  • Any video recordings or pictures of the incident

For Online Community Incidents:

Please include:

  • Identifying information of the reported person (name, online username, handle, email address, or IP address)
  • The community and part of the online space where it occurred
  • A link to the conversation
  • Any logs or screenshots of the conversation

Confidentiality

All reports will be kept confidential. When Code of Conduct committee members discuss incidents, we will anonymize details as much as possible to protect the reporter's privacy.

However, some incidents occur in one-on-one interactions, and even if details are anonymized, the reported person may be able to guess who made the report. If you have concerns about retaliation or personal safety, please include those in your report. We encourage you to report so that we can support you and keep our community safe. In some cases, we can compile several anonymized reports into a pattern of behavior and take action.

In certain cases, a public statement may need to be made. If this happens, the identities of those impacted by the behavior and those who reported it will remain confidential unless otherwise instructed by those individuals.

Report Handling Procedure

When you make a report in person to an incident responder, they will gather information about the incident following the CHAOSS Incident Response Procedure.

For email or in-person incident reports, we strive to acknowledge your report within 48 hours.

The CHAOSS Code of Conduct committee will meet to determine an appropriate response to your report. Possible responses are outlined in the Code of Conduct Incident Response Procedure. In some cases, the committee may need to ask additional questions about the incident.

Conflicts of Interest

If a Code of Conduct committee member has a conflict of interest for a report, they will recuse themselves from the discussion and handling of the incident. The incident documentation will not be available to them, and they will excuse themselves from any related conversations.

Following Up with Reporters

Within one week of an incident report, the CHAOSS Code of Conduct committee will follow up with the person who made the report. The follow-up may include:

  • An acknowledgment that the CHAOSS Code of Conduct committee discussed the situation.
  • Whether or not the report was determined to be a violation of the Code of Conduct.
  • What actions (if any) were taken to correct the reported behavior.

Some reports may take more time to discuss or follow up on. After one week of a report being open, the person who made the report will be provided with a status update, including a timeframe for the next update or resolution.

Accountability

The CHAOSS Code of Conduct team will release annual public transparency reports.

These transparency reports will remove any information about the reporter and the reported person. If there is no way to anonymize the report without revealing identities, the transparency report will simply note that a report was made.

Transparency reports will include:

  • A description of how the Code of Conduct was promoted to community members.
  • A summary of the total number and types of incidents that have occurred since the last transparency report.
  • A summary of the resolutions to those incidents, including unresolved incidents.
  • A generalized description of each incident and how it was resolved.

License and Attribution

The CHAOSS Incident Reporter Guide is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Our Incident Reporter Guide was inspired by and borrows content from Elastic’s Incident Reporter Guide.

Additional Resources

Examples of transparency reports: