ESO Code of Conduct for Workshops & Conferences

ESO is committed to creating a work environment that is safe, professional and of mutual trust where diversity and inclusion are valued, and where everyone is entitled to be treated with courtesy and respect. ESO organisers commit to making conferences, workshops, and all associated activities productive and enjoyable for everyone. We will not tolerate harassment of participants in any form.

Please follow these guidelines:

1. Behave professionally. Harassment and sexist, racist, or exclusionary comments or jokes are not appropriate. Harassment includes sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, sexual attention or innuendo, deliberate intimidation, stalking, and photography or recording of an individual without consent. It also includes offensive comments related to individual characteristics, for example: age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, race, nationality or religion.

2. All communication should be appropriate for a professional audience including people of many different backgrounds. Sexual or sexist language and imagery is not appropriate.

3. Be respectful and do not insult or put down other attendees or facilitators of the event. Critique ideas not people.

4. Should a participant witness events of bullying, harassment or aggression, we recommend that they approach the affected person to show support and check how they are. The witness may also wish to suggest that the person report the inappropriate behaviour. However, it is up to the affected person alone whether or not they wish to report it.

5. If participants wish to share photos of a speaker on social media, we strongly recommend that they first get the speaker’s permission. Participants may also share the contents of talks/slides via social media unless speakers have asked that specific details/slides not be shared.

Each Local Organising Committee has up to two members who are designated as the contact points for all matters related to this code. Participants can report any violation of these guidelines to these designates in confidence. If asked to stop inappropriate behaviour participants are expected to comply immediately and, in serious cases, may be asked to leave the event without a refund. ESO will not tolerate retaliation against anyone reporting violations of this code of conduct.

Thank you for helping to make ESO workshops welcoming for all.

Acknowledgments: This code of conduct is in line with the following policies: “The ESO Way” and the EAS Ethics Statement and Guidelines for Good Practice” (January 2018). It was adapted from the London Code of Conduct (by A. Pontzen and H. Peiris), which was derived from original Creative Commons documents by PyCon and Geek Feminism. It is released under a CC-Zero licence for reuse. To help track people's improvements and best practice, please retain this acknowledgement, and log your re-use or modification of this policy at https://github.com/apontzen/london_cc .

Chair Guidelines

In addition to the above code of conduct appliance with the following Chair guidelines is recommended.

The Chair's actions make the workshop an enjoyable experience for all participants. To this end, we have compiled recommendations and best practice tips based on previous experience.

Chairs are broadly responsible for ensuring a professional atmosphere and for speakers keeping to time so that the question and answer sessions are as effective as possible. Therefore, Chairs may want to familiarise themselves with the workshop code of conduct and with the duration of the talks.

LOC members will also be at hand to help with technical issues and ensure the presentations run smoothly.

Please also note these recommendations and best practice tips for Chairs:

1. Introduce yourself at the start of the session.

2. Introduce yourself to the speakers in your session beforehand (where possible), and ensure you know how to pronounce their names to introduce them appropriately.

3. All questions should be asked and answered using a microphone to ensure that all participants can benefit from the answer.

4. If you deem a question inappropriate or unprofessional, you are expected to intervene or take another question.

5. Chairs are encouraged to be conscious of their biases and avoid preferentially selecting some people and/or paying attention to only some parts of the room. Please also make sure that online participants have a chance to ask questions.

6. After the talk ends, wait a few seconds longer than you usually would before choosing the first question. This gives time for more people to formulate their questions and can encourage more questions from early career scientists.
For example, if someone is being very active and asks questions after each talk, feel free to skip their hand and choose someone else sometimes.

7. Letting the questions run for the full time is preferable to allowing the speaker to run over their time.