As a meeting planner or conference staff, you know how important it is to provide a safe and inclusive environment for your attendees. A key way to do that is to have a code of conduct that communicates your expectations to all attendees that your conference or meeting will be safe and inclusive for all participants.
Our meeting planning and code of conduct enforcement services help ensure that your event remains a safe space for all attendees and that those engaged in harassment or other misconduct understand the consequences for engaging in this behavior.
Customized Codes of Conduct
Prior to the event, we work with you to create a customized code of conduct that:
- Reflects your community norms and is easy to understand and enforce.
- Covers not just attendees, speakers, and organization staff, but also venue staff, vendors, and volunteers.
- Includes an enforcement mechanism with a threat scale to assess harm and consequences and penalties for violations.
Training Tailored to your Values
With training that is specifically tailored to your event and your organization’s values, we train staff, volunteers, board members and key stakeholders to address tricky issues such as:
- VIPs, keynote speakers, and organizational leaders and donors who violate the code
- Speakers making off-color or inappropriate remarks from stage
- Complaints where the reporter wants to remain anonymous, or who doesn’t know the name of the person they are reporting
- Involving venue security and/or local law enforcement
Marketing Your Reporting System To Make Sure It’s Used
We help you publicize the code of conduct and make on-site reporting easy by:
- Developing a communications strategy
- Reviewing your materials and signage
- Providing an easy to use reporting app, partnering with vendors using the latest reporting technology
- Preparing information for speakers, moderators, attendees and volunteers
On-Site Reporting and Investigation of Complaints:
On-site, we remove the stress of quickly responding to and resolving complaints by:
- Educating attendees on the organization’s code of conduct and how to report potential violations
- Working directly with and advising staff responsible for fielding complaints, enabling faster decisions, or
- Fielding all complaints directly and resolving those which can be handled without involving conference staff
- Interviewing the reporting party and, if necessary and appropriate, the offending party and other witnesses
- Making recommendations to conference and venue staff about an appropriate response and consequences for the violating behavior
Comprehensive Post-Event Reporting:
After the event is over, we provide your organization with a comprehensive report that:
- Discusses all reported incidents and their resolution
- Highlights needed post-event followup to provide closure and ensure the parties’ satisfaction
- Contains recommendations about improving the process for future conferences and meetings
- Identifies gaps in the current code and enforcement mechanism
- Educates staff, board members, and other key stakeholders about the importance of a comprehensive code of conduct enforcement plan
Conferences and meetings are an essential part of your organization’s program and identity, and for some, are the reason that you exist. A single incident that is not properly handled can seriously jeopardize your organization’s reputation and cause significant harm to attendance and membership. Participants who are away from home, staying in hotels, meeting people (often for the first time), and engaging for networking and social purposes, often with alcohol involved, can present a known threat to meeting safety. By planning ahead, you can communicate your expectations to attendees and provide them with the tools to take action when harassment, bullying and other inappropriate behavior occurs.
PB Work Solutions partners with leading harassment and safety advocates such as Ana Avendaño of Minga Strategies and Sherry Marts of S*Marts Consulting. Combined, we offer many decades of harassment and safety prevention expertise, as well as considerable experience in planning and attending meetings in the nonprofit, union, and academic spaces. We’ve been there, and we know what can happen. But we can also help you prevent the worst and deal with the rest.