Code Of Conduct

To report a violaton of the Code of Conduct, please use the form here or speak to an organizer (wearing a blue badge).

Why have a code of conduct?

Our goal is to support your learning and growth over the course of the competition, and to give you the space to demonstrate your skills. We want you to be able to focus your full attention on competing at CIRC. This is impossible to do if you are being harassed, stalked, or discriminated against. Accordingly, all Competitors, Volunteers, Organizers, and Spectators are expected to show respect and courtesy to each other in all interactions, whether at CIRC, in our online community, or in other contexts. To make sure that everyone has a common understanding of “show respect and courtesy to each other,” we have adopted the following code of conduct. The code of conduct is enforced by the CIRC Organizers.

Unacceptable behaviour

The following types of behaviour are unacceptable at CIRC, both online and in-person, and constitute code of conduct violations.

Abusive behaviour

  1. Harassment—including offensive verbal comments related to gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, or religion, as well as sexual images in public spaces, deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual or romantic attention. Any sexual or romantic attention from an Organizer or Volunteer to a competitor is unacceptable.
  2. Threats—threatening someone physically or verbally. For example, threatening to publicize sensitive information about someone’s personal life.

Unwelcoming behaviour

  1. Blatant -isms—saying things that are explicitly racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. For example, arguing that some people are less intelligent because of their gender, race or religion. Small mistakes made in conversation are not code of conduct violations. However, repeating something after it has been pointed out to you that you broke a social rule, or antagonizing or arguing with someone who has pointed out your subtle -ism is considered unwelcoming behaviour, and is not allowed at CIRC.
  2. Maliciousness towards other participants—deliberately attempting to make others feel bad, name-calling, singling out others for derision or exclusion. For example, telling someone that they don’t belong at CIRC.
  3. Being especially unpleasant—for example, if we’ve received reports from multiple competitors or volunteers of annoying, rude, or especially distracting behaviour.

Behaviour that jeopardizes CIRC’s existence

  1. Entering Non-Public Areas of CIRC Central—The competition gains access only to the field house, teams rooms, and public spaces of the Badlands Community Facility. Trespassing outside of these areas puts the competition at risk, and could prevent CIRC from running in the future. Occasionally, participants may need access to non-public parts of the facility (such as to the shipping/receiving area for rover delivery). Participants must get permission from and be escorted by the facility staff every time they access those non-public parts of the facility.
  2. Damage, or Unsafe Behaviour to CIRC Central or Task Sites—The competition operates on geologically significant land, and under a set of constraints that ensure we minimize the impact to that land. Any damage to those sites risks CIRC’s ability to continue as a competition. Behaviour that threatens the safety of yourself or others risks legal action and impacts our ability to insure the event, and could prevent CIRC from continuing as a competition.

Scope

This code of conduct applies to all participants at CIRC

  • Competitors who are here as part of a competing team (white badge)
  • Volunteers who are here to help run the event (green badge)
  • Organizers who plan and run the competition (blue badge)
  • Spectators who are at CIRC to watch the rovers or learn more about the competition

Participants are held to the standards outlined in this code of conduct when interacting physically at the competition,on virtual events like Q&As, and online on CIRC spaces like the competition discord/slack or organization slack.

In addition, the CIRC community and experience often extends outside those spaces—competitors may be socializing at a nearby bar or staying in the same hotel. Abusive or unwelcoming behaviour between participants still has a profound impact on individuals and on the community when it happens beyond our walls or online spaces. When in doubt, please report unacceptable behaviour to an Organizer. If someone’s behaviour outside of CIRC makes you feel unsafe at CIRC, that is absolutely relevant and actionable for us.

Enforcement

We’ve categorized unacceptable behaviour into abuse, unwelcoming behaviour, and behaviour that jeopardizes CIRC’s existence in the section above. CIRC organizers will use our discretion when deciding how to enforce this code of conduct and potentially remove an individual or team from CIRC after reports of such behavior happening outside of CIRC, taking into account the impact on the individual participants involved as well as the impact on the competition at large.

If we witness or receive a report about abusive behaviour, we will contact the perpetrator to have a conversation with them and verify what has transpired, and they will be removed from the CIRC community. They will not be welcome in the physical CIRC space or at CIRC events, and their virtual accounts will be deactivated/banned. If we witness or receive a report about unwelcoming behaviour or behaviour that jeopardizes CIRC’s existence, we will contact the Participant involved to explain why their behaviour was unacceptable, and warn them that a second code of conduct violation will result in us removing them from the CIRC community. Teams are responsible for the behaviour of their members, and violations of the code of conduct may result in the removal of an entire team from the competition.

Reporting

If you see a violation of our code of conduct, please report it to an Organizer.

Why should I report?

You are responsible for making CIRC a safe and comfortable space for everyone. Everyone in our community shares this responsibility. CIRC organizers do not see or hear everything at the event, so we cannot enforce the code of conduct without your help. The consequences for the CIRC community of not reporting bad behaviour outweigh the consequences for one person of reporting it. We sometimes hear “I don’t want X person to meet consequences because I told someone about their bad behaviour.” Consider the impact on everyone else at CIRC of letting their behaviour continue unchecked.

Where and how to report

Please report all code of conduct violations using our reporting form. If you would rather discuss the matter in person, contact any Organizer (Organizers wear a blue badge).

In your report, please include:

  1. Your name and team—this is incredibly helpful for us to be able to follow up with you, and ask questions to better understand the situation. The form allows you to report anonymously. Please only use this option if you really need to, and know that we might not be able to take action without knowing who you are.
  2. A detailed description of what happened
    1. If the violation happened online, please link to or send us the relevant text.
    2. If the violation happened in person, please detail what exactly the other person said or did. In order to take action, we need to know the concrete actions that someone took.
  3. Where and when the incident happened
  4. Any other relevant context. Do you have examples of a pattern of similar behaviour from this person before? Do you have a relationship with this person outside of CIRC?
  5. If/how you’ve already responded—this lets us know the current state of the situation.

Confidentiality

We will keep all reports confidential, except if we’ve discussed with you and agreed otherwise. When we discuss incidents with people who are reported, we will anonymize details as much as we can to protect reporter privacy.

However, some incidents happen in one-on-one interactions, and even if the details are anonymized, the reported person may be able to guess who made the report. If you have concerns about retaliation or your personal safety, and do not want us to share the details of your report with anyone (including the perpetrator) please let us know explicitly in your report. Unfortunately, in that situation we will not be able to take any action. In some cases we may decide to share an update about a major incident with all participants currently at CIRC. If that’s the case, the identities of all victims and reporters will remain confidential unless those individuals instruct us otherwise.

Other things that don’t fit in to the code of conduct

When to seek help immediately

Instead of filling out a code of conduct violation report, please contact law enforcement (call 911) directly to report criminal activity (e.g. physical assault, sexual assault, theft), or to report a dangerous physical situation (e.g. fire, serious injury, fear that someone will hurt themselves or someone else).

Sleeping in the space

Sleeping in CIRC Central is not allowed. You may take a quick nap at CIRC, but do not sleep here overnight—this is not allowed according to our contract with the facility. Please reach out to a CIRC organizer in person or over email if you notice someone sleeping in the space, or if you or someone else at CIRC needs transportation to return to their accomodation.

License

The CIRC code of conduct is available under the terms of the CC0 license.

It is largely based on the Recurse Center Code of Conduct.