Biscuit’s Code of Conduct for volunteers and event attendees

Principles

Biscuit’s events should be a safe, affirming space for all attendees, regardless of age, religion, ethnicity, gender, nationality, class, disability or sexual or romantic orientation.

We have a zero tolerance policy for abuse. Abuse includes but is not limited to: physical and sexual violence, threats, gaslighting and manipulation, doxxing, malicious complaints and social engineering.

The basics

It is your responsibility to read the code of conduct. You are expected to abide by it whether you have read it or not.
Biscuit celebrates diversity. Sexism, racism, dis/ableism, classism, trans-, homo-, bi- or lesbophobia will not be tolerated.
Biscuit respects that your gender is not a matter for debate.
No means no, always and without exception.
Violent or threatening behaviour will result in exclusion from Biscuit events in perpetuity.
Abuse of our staff or volunteers at any time will result in exclusion from Biscuit events in perpetuity.
We believe you.

Respecting difference

Please respect people’s pronouns. It’s always a good idea to ask.
Racism, sexism, classism, dis/ableism, xenophobia, homo-, bi-, trans- and lesbophobia will not be tolerated.
Please respect that not everyone has the same knowledge that you have, and try to assume if someone makes a mistake it’s probably not malicious. A gentle and compassionate correction is preferable to a ‘call out’.

Respecting boundaries

No means no, always and without exception.
Our staff and volunteers deserve to feel safe at work. Abuse of them by threats, intimidation, violence, doxxing, social engineering, gaslighting, manipulation or malicious complaints will result in exclusion from Biscuit events in perpetuity. This is not an exhaustive list, and Biscuit reserves the right to add to it at any time.
Abuse of our staff and volunteer corps does not have to have occured at a Biscuit event to result in exclusion.

Confidentiality

Please do not take photos or recordings without explicit permission from the subject. Consent is assumed for our staff and volunteers.
Please do not share photos or recordings of Biscuit events online without explicit permission of everyone in them.
Members of the press will make themselves known.
Members of the press will assume that everything they hear is off the record unless explicitly noted otherwise.

How we’ll handle code of conduct breaches

We believe you.

We want you to feel comfortable enough to bring your concerns to us. We promise that we will treat what you say with the utmost confidentiality, and (except in cases of physical violence, or abuse of our staff or volunteers) we won’t do anything you don’t want us to do.

If you’d like help challenging bad behaviour, approach one of our team members or volunteers, identifiable by their lanyards. If the person you speak to makes notes on your conversation, you will be given the opportunity to read and revise what they have written. You can ask that nothing is written down, but allowing us to make notes assists us to spot patterns of behaviour and identify serial misconduct.

We’ll involve you in any decision we make, unless you don’t want us to.

Our core team cannot always attend to everything immediately, so we trust the decisions our volunteers make. If you are unhappy with their decision, you can ask for it to be escalated to the core team.

The decision of Biscuit’s director is final.

Special notes for volunteers

When you volunteer for Biscuit, you put our name in your hands. We ask that your behaviour while you’re working with us reflects our values of diversity, unity and respect.

Please wear your volunteer lanyard at all times when on shift and remove it as soon as your shift is over. Please display your chosen name, and your pronoun on your badge.
Please do not use drugs while on shift.
You may be given temporary access to sensitive data. You may not copy, transfer or otherwise share this data.
No one expects you to know everything. Please, don’t be afraid to say ‘I don’t know’.