[welcome]
This document has been influenced by our collective experiences as well as the Bio Summit 2019 Community Guidelines and the NOLOSE Community Agreements.
This set of community agreements applies to all participants of Please Try This At Home 2019. By attending, you agree to operate under this agreement.
***
A reminder of our values: We are explicitly and perpetually striving to be anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-ableist, anti-capitalist, queer and trans as fuck, sex-positive, body-positive, anti-corporate, & anarchist. We emphasize that individuals are the experts of our own experiences, and we aim to center and uplift people in traditionally marginalized and under-resourced communities.
We’re all coming from different fields, backgrounds, places, and social locations. We believe this is a great source of potential, creativity, and power. This also means we can expect disagreement, varied political perspectives, and discomfort. These are not excuses to be a jerk.
So aim to not be a jerk*, but if you are, work to correct it and know the organizing team is here to support you in that change. If you’re intentionally and/or maliciously being disruptive of the event and the people in it, though, know we’re not here for that and won’t let it slide.
We also encourage community care: don’t centralize the upholding of this only to organizers!
If you’re crossing any of the agreements outlined here, the organizing team may ask you to change your behavior, make some sort of amends/apologies, and/or leave the premises until further notice.
*Just because someone upsets you doesn’t mean they’re necessarily being a jerk. As the BioSummit organizers have stated and we quote here: please note there will not be actions on complaints regarding:
Our Vision For The Space
We’re looking to foster an event where people:
We have also developed a pretty badass accessibility plan which you should check out: Please Try This at Home: Venue & Accessibility Information
Our Safety & De-escalation Team & Protocols
The People
One of our core organizers, Aida Manduley, will bottom-line this, so if you have any issues or concerns, you can text or call them at 401.227.0769. Alternate points of contact can include our conference email that will be monitored by Sean (pleasetrythis@riseup.net) and our Twitter Direct Messages monitored by Fox (@pleasetryathome).
Our safety and de-escalation team overall is made up of volunteers from Murmurs of Hope, Inside Our Minds, SCORCH (Steel City Organizing for Radical Community Health), and JBGC (John Brown Gun Club). These volunteers include trained street medics, people trained in de-escalation, folks who know about mental health first aid, and more.
What's Up
Recording and Photo Policy
Presenters can notify audience whether or not they would like to be photographed, or otherwise recorded, along with any materials presented. We have an opt-in policy rather than an opt-out policy; this means assume no photo, video, or audio documentation is allowed unless explicitly granted permission. And then, be mindful of who is being captured in the image!
Please do not use flash photography in the space. We do not plan to have any FX like strobes, loud noises, or other such theatrical elements. If your project or presentation will involve these, please give the audience ample notice so they may plan appropriately (since those things can trigger seizures in some individuals).
What We’re Not Down With
This set of community agreements applies to all participants of Please Try This At Home 2019. By attending, you agree to operate under this agreement.
***
A reminder of our values: We are explicitly and perpetually striving to be anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-ableist, anti-capitalist, queer and trans as fuck, sex-positive, body-positive, anti-corporate, & anarchist. We emphasize that individuals are the experts of our own experiences, and we aim to center and uplift people in traditionally marginalized and under-resourced communities.
We’re all coming from different fields, backgrounds, places, and social locations. We believe this is a great source of potential, creativity, and power. This also means we can expect disagreement, varied political perspectives, and discomfort. These are not excuses to be a jerk.
So aim to not be a jerk*, but if you are, work to correct it and know the organizing team is here to support you in that change. If you’re intentionally and/or maliciously being disruptive of the event and the people in it, though, know we’re not here for that and won’t let it slide.
We also encourage community care: don’t centralize the upholding of this only to organizers!
If you’re crossing any of the agreements outlined here, the organizing team may ask you to change your behavior, make some sort of amends/apologies, and/or leave the premises until further notice.
*Just because someone upsets you doesn’t mean they’re necessarily being a jerk. As the BioSummit organizers have stated and we quote here: please note there will not be actions on complaints regarding:
- “Reverse” -isms, including “reverse racism,” “reverse sexism,” and “cisphobia”.
- Reasonable communication of boundaries, such as “leave me alone,” “go away,” or “I’m not discussing this with you.”
- Refusal to explain or debate social justice concepts.
- Communicating in a “tone” you don’t find congenial.
- Criticizing racist, sexist, cissexist, or otherwise bigoted or oppressive behavior or assumptions
Our Vision For The Space
We’re looking to foster an event where people:
- Can contribute and engage in a variety of ways without a hierarchy of participation
- Can dialogue about misunderstandings in ways that enact respect and care, and move closer to instead of further away from kindness
- Honor the different and diverse ways we share our ideas and do our work
- Have fun, connect to each other, feel some level of hope for our future
- Feel a collective sense of responsibility rather than relying on a centralized model of authority or gatekeeping
- Consider the implicit and explicit power relations inherent in their interactions
- Challenge each other’s ideas but not each other’s dignity
- Examine their own feelings of discomfort and see if they’re being encouraged to grow or genuinely being threatened with some form of harm or violence
- Hope for positive intent but hold each other accountable as well
- Respect each other’s emotional, physical, and spatial boundaries and ask for explicit consent before touching or getting all up in each other’s business (unless the individuals have a previous agreement to do things differently with each other)
We have also developed a pretty badass accessibility plan which you should check out: Please Try This at Home: Venue & Accessibility Information
Our Safety & De-escalation Team & Protocols
The People
One of our core organizers, Aida Manduley, will bottom-line this, so if you have any issues or concerns, you can text or call them at 401.227.0769. Alternate points of contact can include our conference email that will be monitored by Sean (pleasetrythis@riseup.net) and our Twitter Direct Messages monitored by Fox (@pleasetryathome).
Our safety and de-escalation team overall is made up of volunteers from Murmurs of Hope, Inside Our Minds, SCORCH (Steel City Organizing for Radical Community Health), and JBGC (John Brown Gun Club). These volunteers include trained street medics, people trained in de-escalation, folks who know about mental health first aid, and more.
What's Up
- If you feel compelled to call the police for any reason, please don’t. There is a long history of police involvement putting the lives of people at risk, including those who call them. As a values-driven and primarily anarchist space, we want to take care of each other instead and put the power of community safety back in our collective hands.
- If police show up, please notify Aida. They can take care of updating the appropriate people to liaise with them and show them out.
- If right-wing agitators show up, please notify an event organizer (will have stars on their badges) and also specifically Aida.
- If someone’s abuser shows up, please notify Aida to discuss further details and possible actions. If someone has previously been uninvited from other community events due to incidents of enacting violence or harassment on others (and have no accountability processes completed), they won’t be welcome here either.
- If you are triggered, you know yourself best—do what makes sense for you! Be aware we have a dedicated Sensory Space at Persad that you can go to for comfortable seating, no fluorescent light, and quiet. If you need more personal assistance or support, you can reach out to our team bottom-liner, Aida, who can put you in touch with a trained volunteer.
- If there’s a medical emergency, be aware we have first aid materials available and some coverage during the event from trained medics and you can reach out to us about those. If you require transportation to a hospital, please DO NOT call 911. Contact Aida and someone from the crisis response team will be made available to drive you to the Emergency Room. The nearest hospital is West Penn Hospital (4800 Friendship Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15224) and is about 10 mins away by car. Other nearby emergency rooms include ones at Allegheny General Hospital (320 E North Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15212 and about 20-40 mins away by car) and UPMC Presbyterian (200 Lothrop Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 and about 20 mins away by car).
Recording and Photo Policy
Presenters can notify audience whether or not they would like to be photographed, or otherwise recorded, along with any materials presented. We have an opt-in policy rather than an opt-out policy; this means assume no photo, video, or audio documentation is allowed unless explicitly granted permission. And then, be mindful of who is being captured in the image!
Please do not use flash photography in the space. We do not plan to have any FX like strobes, loud noises, or other such theatrical elements. If your project or presentation will involve these, please give the audience ample notice so they may plan appropriately (since those things can trigger seizures in some individuals).
What We’re Not Down With
- Being a jerk as outlined in previous sections
- “Rules-lawyering” and approaching requests to modify behavior with hostility, “...but I didn’t mean it that way,” and “well XYZ wasn’t explicitly prohibited”
- Repeatedly and/or intentionally asking intrusive personal questions
- Disrespecting people’s pronouns/genders (through misgendering, using “deadnames,” making misaligned and gendered comments about their appearance)
- Making unwelcome comments regarding a person’s lifestyle choices and practices, including those related to food, health, parenting, drugs, and employment
- Ignoring or violating people’s stated boundaries
- Firearms on premises
- PERSAD and Body Euphoria both have "absolutely no firearms on the premises" policies
- Harassment of any kind, including but not limited to forcing physical contact, unwanted flirtation or sexual contact, “jokey” boundary-pushing, threats of violence, and so on
- Cops, Nazis, fascists, and authoritarian violence of any kind
