Code of Conduct

1. Introduction

ScotPEN is an inclusive network of people involved in public engagement in Scotland. We provide peer support, collaborative opportunities and a voice to shape and share good engagement practice. We believe in creating spaces for our membership that are inclusive, accessible, and collaborative. We believe in transparency and ensuring our programmes are designed with, and for, our membership.

At our Annual Gathering in 2023, we asked members to share what they thought the values of ScotPEN should be. We have demonstrated these in the word cloud here, but have also used these to shape our Code of Conduct.

Everyone who is involved with ScotPEN’s activities (e.g. Committee, members, event/activity attendees etc) are subject to our Code of Conduct. Failing to comply with the Code of Conduct could result in the immediate exclusion from any programmed activities or events.

Being part of ScotPEN means:

  • Being open and transparent
  • Using inclusive and welcoming language
  • Treating everyone with respect
  • Treating everyone equally
  • Respecting each other’s pronouns

We will NOT accept:

  • Discrimination or harassment
  • Violent behaviour whether this be verbal or physical

We will NOT accept:

  • Using gendered terms like “guys” to address a mixed group of people.
  • Using stigmatising and ableist words such as “mental”, “crazy”, “dumb” or using specific diagnoses out of context such as “OCD”.

Harassment includes, but is not limited to, offensive verbal or written comments related to gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, religion, sexual images in public spaces, deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, unwelcome sexual attention, or sexual jokes.

Making a complaint:
If someone is violating the Code of Conduct and you are the subject of the harassment and/or a witness, there are three options:

If you feel able to discuss someone’s behaviour aimed at you or someone else directly with them, please do; we do not intend formal procedures to replace discussion between ScotPEN members.
Discuss the matter informally with a member of the Committee; they can act as a mediator before starting the process for a formal complaint detailed below.

File a formal complaint: if you intend to file an official complaint, it is important that you give as much detail as possible about what you have witnessed or experienced.

Please bear in mind that all reports are confidential and we would appreciate it if information about the incident was not disclosed publicly (including on social media) until ScotPEN’s Committee has had time to address the situation.

You can report an issue following the two processes below:

  1. Face-to-face:
    You can approach any member of the current Committee to file a complaint. Current members of the Committee can be found on the ScotPEN Website here. You will be asked to provide a written version of your complaint. If all current members of the Committee are the subjects of the complaint, please approach Maddy Foard (Senior Project Manager, National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement) by emailing Maddy.Foard@uwe.ac.uk.

  2. Electronically:
    Please send an email to hello@scotpen.org. This address is monitored by the current Communications Coordinator and not by the rest of the Committee members. If you prefer the complaint to be reported anonymously, please mention this in your email. The email will be forwarded to the Chair, who will discuss matters with the Committee unless:

a) The Chair is the subject of the complaint (in this case, the email will be forwarded to the Secretary).
b) The Secretary and Chair are the subjects of the complaint (in this case, the email will be forwarded to the Annual Gathering Coordinator).
c) And so forth…
d) If all current members of the Committee are the subjects of the complaint, please approach Maddy Foard (Senior Project Manager, National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement) by emailing Maddy.Foard@uwe.ac.uk.

What to pay attention to when reporting an incident:

  • Identifying information (name/badge) of the person doing the harassing;
  • The behaviour in violation;
  • The approximate time of the incident (if different from the time the report was made);
  • The circumstances surrounding the incident;
  • Other people involved in the incident.

If you feel someone is at imminent risk for their life and you feel that police or emergency services need to be involved, please don’t hesitate to contact 999.

Credits:
This Code of Conduct is based on and adapted from the BIG STEM Communicators Network Code of Conduct which was based on and adapted from the Dot Everyone Code of Conduct (CC BY 4.0) and the PHP Conference Code of Conduct (CC BY 3.0). The latter was based on and adapted from the PyCon Code of Conduct (CC BY 3.0).