Version 1.0
Agreed by Committee Jan 2022

1. Purpose

We do not want to make a big thing about this but we want to make it clear that we are a friendly and inclusive community, around a friendly and inclusive club. 

We want everyone to be happy, feel safe, feel welcome, and the entire world to be perfect. 

If we are honest, we are struggling at “the world being perfect” bit, but with your help, we should be able to manage the rest of it. 

Below is our code of conduct:

We will have people involved in our community with a variety of gender identities and sexual orientations. 

We will have people involved of all ages and maturities. 

We will have people involved who have visible disabilities and invisible disabilities. 

We will have people involved of many shapes and sizes. 

We will have people involved whose skin colour is the same as yours and whose is different to yours. 

Some community members will look and sound like you and some will look and sound very different to you. 

There will be many beliefs in the community, be they religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other beliefs and they will at times differ vastly from your beliefs. 

We will have boulderers, trad climbers, sport climbers, indoor climbers and outdoor climbers. 

Some will have voted to leave the EU and some to stay.

If you have a problem with being in the same community with any of these people then this group is probably not the community for you and you should not get involved. 

If you can not treat everyone as an equal then the group is probably not the community for you and you should not get involved. 

If you can agree to disagree, be tolerant and respectful, and try not to upset others then you are a tremendous person, and we really want you to be a part of our community.

If your views and beliefs are different to other people’s then that is okay. Just do not allow them to upset or offend others. They will also be trying not to upset or offend you.

If you accidentally upset another person in the Clan or make them feel uneasy, even if you did not intend to, and even if you do not understand how this could happen, then you will want to work with the Clan to make things right and avoid any more upset. 

We all make mistakes.

If you purposely upset, hurt or otherwise abuse another person in the Clan, then sadly you are not welcome and will be asked to leave.

The Clan committee is not judge and jury and is not responsible for enforcing morality on the world, but they are fixated on creating a friendly and welcoming community where everyone feels safe. Please please please help us with that.

2. Climbing Clan Citizenship

A supplementary goal of this Code of Conduct is to increase citizenship within the climbing community by encouraging participants to recognize and strengthen the relationships between our actions and their effects on our community.

Communities mirror the societies in which they exist and positive action is essential to counteract the many forms of inequality and abuses of power that exist in society.

If you see someone who is making an extra effort to ensure our community is welcoming, friendly, and encourages all participants to contribute to the fullest extent, we want to know.

3. Expected Behaviour

The following behaviours are expected and requested of all community members:

• Participate in an authentic and active way. In doing so, you contribute to the health and longevity of this community.
• Please be kind and courteous. There’s no need to be mean or rude.
• Remember and respect that people will have different opinions and ways to understand climbing.
• Assume that everyone acts with good intentions.
• Attempt collaboration before conflict.
• Refrain from demeaning, discriminatory, or harassing behaviour and speech.
• Be mindful of your surroundings and of your fellow community members. Alert community leaders if you notice a dangerous situation, someone in distress, or violations of this Code of Conduct, even if they seem inconsequential.
• Remember that climbing venues may be shared with members of the public; please be respectful to all users of these locations.
• We expect that climbers will be receptive to constructive feedback about safety aspects of their climbing.
• The Clan events, Facebook groups and communications should be only used to organise climbing, promote climbing between members and should not be used to promote other groups, clubs, companies, specific instruction providers or things that the Clan members are involved in that aren’t linked to Climbing. Clan members are encouraged to make use of The Social Clan for these things.
• Please keep unstructured critique to a minimum, and follow feedback procedures and best practice when sharing critical feedback:
  • eg. Complaints about a person are best made directly to a member of the committee. 
  • If trying to improve someone’s skills, it can be helpful to ask if they know if there’s a better way of doing it. 
  • If wanting to give feedback about a Clan procedure, the first point of contact should be a member of the Clan committee.

4. Unacceptable Behaviour

The following behaviours are considered harassment and are unacceptable within our community:

• Violence; threats of violence; or violent language directed against another person.
• Sexist, racist, ageist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist or otherwise discriminatory jokes and language.
• Posting or displaying sexually explicit or violent material.
• Posting or threatening to post other people’s personally identifying information ("doxing").
• Personal insults, particularly those related to gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, or disability.
• Inappropriate photography or recording.
• Inappropriate physical contact. You should have someone’s consent before touching them.
• Unwelcome sexual attention. This includes sexualized comments or jokes; inappropriate touching, groping, and unwelcome sexual advances.
• Deliberate intimidation, stalking or following (online or in person).
• Sustained disruption and/or repetitive last minute cancellations and not turning up at indoors and outdoors events.
• Spamming, trolling, flaming, baiting or other attention-stealing behaviour.
• Advocating, encouraging or inciting any of the above behaviours.

6. Consequences of Unacceptable Behaviour

Unacceptable behaviour from any community member, including facebook group members and those with decision-making authority, will not be tolerated.

Anyone asked to stop unacceptable behaviour is expected to comply immediately.

If a community member engages in unacceptable behaviour, the community organizers may take any action they deem appropriate, up to and including a temporary ban or permanent expulsion from the community without warning (and without refund in the case of a paid event). 

With Clan members and those who aren’t members of the Clan - if they have attended one or more Climbing Clan events in person, this will involve following the club Disciplinary Procedure. 

With members of the community who are not club members, club volunteers and committee members, may take action they see fit to protect the community. This will be subject to appeal.

7. Reporting Guidelines

If you are subject to, or witness unacceptable behaviour, or have any other concerns, please notify the organiser of the event you are at, or the club Secretary as soon as possible. Contact details are listed below.

8. Addressing Grievances

If you feel you have been falsely or unfairly accused of violating this Code of Conduct, you should notify The Secretary with a concise description of your grievance. Your grievance will be handled in accordance with our existing Grievance Policy.

This procedure applies to all the Climbing Clan community, including facebook groups and activity chats.

9. Scope

We expect all community participants (club members, paid or otherwise; facebook group members; and other guests) to abide by this Code of Conduct in all community venues – online and in-person – as well as in all one-on-one communications pertaining to community business.

This code of conduct and its related procedures also applies to unacceptable behaviour occurring outside the scope of community activities when such behavior has the potential to adversely affect the safety and well-being of community members.

10. Contact info

Secretary: secretary (at) climbingclan.com

Committee: committee (at) climbingclan.com

Chair: Chair (at) climbingclan.com

11. License and attribution

This Code of Conduct is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license.

Portions of text derived from the Django Code of Conduct, the Geek Feminism Anti-Harassment Policy, the Citizen Code of Conduct, the Rust Lang code of conduct and the Barcamp North East Safe Spaces policy.