CODE OF CONDUCT

Max Publishing events are a friendly community where everyone should feel welcome and safe to share ideas and engage in open discussion. It’s really important for us to provide a harassment-free experience for everyone inclusive of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age, nationality or religion.

All participants, speakers, sponsors and staff are required to abide by our code of conduct at Max Publishing events, conferences and meetups, and online. Any violations will be dealt with seriously and may include being expelled and banned from events or online spaces without a refund. This is to protect the safety of our community.

Definitions

What do we mean by “harassment”? Harassment includes but isn’t limited to:

• • Offensive comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neurotype, physical appearance, body size, race, age, nationality, religion or belief, marital and civil partnership status, pregnancy or carer or parental status, familial status, veteran status, citizenship
  • Unwelcome comments regarding a person’s lifestyle choices and practices, including those related to food, health, parenting, drugs, and employment
  • Homophobic, biphobic, transphobic, racist, or misogynist slurs or comments
  • Deliberate misgendering
  • Physical contact without consent or after a request to cease
  • Threats or acts of violence or intimidation
  • Unwelcome sexual attention
  • Sharing/displaying sexual or sexualised images
  • Deliberate “outing” of any aspect of a person’s identity without their consent
  • Harassing photography or recording, including logging online activity for harassment purposes
  • Sustained disruption of discussion
  • Advocating for or encouraging any of the above behaviours
  • Repeated unsolicited sales and promotional messages

We prioritise the safety of marginalised people’s safety over privileged people’s comfort. This means we reserve the right not to act on complaints regarding:

• • Reverse-isms, including ‘reverse racism’, ‘reverse sexism’, and ‘cisphobia’
  • Reasonable communication of boundaries, such as “leave me alone”, “go away”, “I’m not discussing this with you”
  • Criticising racist, sexist, cissexist, or otherwise oppressive behaviour

Consequences

Participants asked to stop any harassing behaviour are expected to stop immediately.

Participants engaging in harassing behaviour may be asked to leave an event or online space and may be banned temporarily or indefinitely. If a ticket was purchased for an in-person or online event, we reserve the right not to issue a refund.

If harassment occurs outside an event or online space organised by Max Publishing that may impact the safety of our community, we reserve the right to investigate and take appropriate action, for instance banning from future events.

Reporting

If you are being harassed or made to feel unsafe or unwelcome, please report it as soon as possible. You can help us by reporting any behaviour you think might go against the Code of Conduct.

• • Email: hello@max-publishing.co.uk 
  • In-person at events: speak to a staff member

Reporting & enforcement process

1. 1. Incident report is taken in a safe, private space at events or in a personal and direct message online
   2. Incident responders investigate with the reported person
   3. Incident response team reconvene to discuss an appropriate response
   4. Appropriate action is taken
   5. Incident responders follow up with the reporter and the reported person
   6. Inform community if necessary
   7. Debrief and document internally

This policy is a living document and is subject to refinement and updates in the future. Last updated in January 2022.