Code of Conduct

The Texas Tribune Festival is about civil discussions and coming together as a community of caring Texans. Bring questions and a willingness to participate in respectful conversations. We’re grateful that our community is civil — it’s what makes Texas Tribune events successful. All attendees should feel safe at the Festival and we will not tolerate any harassment based on race, gender and trans statuses, sexual orientation, religion, disability, socioeconomic status, age, national origin or ethnicity.

Reporting a Problem

Be mindful of your surroundings and of your fellow participants. Alert Festival staff if you notice what you assess to be a dangerous situation, someone in distress or violations of this Code of Conduct. You can alert on-site staff, email festival@texastribune.org or call our help line 512-716-8603. For emergencies, dial 9-1-1.

We expect all participants — attendees, speakers, sponsors and volunteers — to follow the Code of Conduct during the conference. This includes conference-related social events at off-site locations and related online communities and social media. Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately. Conference participants violating this Code of Conduct may be expelled from the Festival without a refund, and/or banned from future Texas Tribune events, at the discretion of Tribune staff.

• Exercise consideration and respect in your speech and actions.
  
  
• Passionate conversations are part of solving problems. Disagreements happen all the time and are necessary to consider difficult questions. That said, we ask that you keep conversations professional, respectful and consider other parties’ points of view. In short, don’t make it personal.
  
  
• Remember that the boundaries of good taste, humor, personal space and physical interaction differ from person to person; if you sense someone feels uncomfortable — whether they explicitly state it or not — be respectful of those boundaries.
  
  
• Refrain from demeaning, discriminatory or harassing behavior. Harassment and inappropriate behavior may include, but are not limited to:
  
  • Sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic or otherwise discriminatory jokes or language
  • Physical intimidation, stalking or following
  • Sustained disruption of talks or events
  • Posting or displaying sexually explicit or violent material
  • Unwelcome sexual attention. This includes sexualized comments or jokes; inappropriate touching, groping and unwelcome sexual advances
  • Advocating for, or encouraging, any of the above behavior
    
• Do not bring: chairs, signs, anything that could be considered a weapon of any kind (gun, knife, large stick, projectiles, etc.), graffiti pens or spray paint. Individuals bringing these items may be ejected from the Festival and have credentials revoked without refund. We expect attendees to use good judgment. We reserve the right to disallow any other items we deem inappropriate, dangerous, threatening or inconvenient to others attending the event.
  
• No political campaigning in Festival venues.
  

Above text is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, adapted from ONA18 Code of Conduct (Adapted from the SRCCON Code of Conduct and the Citizen Code of Conduct; in consultation with the Geek Feminism community anti-harassment policy, O’Reilly Media’s conference Code of Conduct, the Coral Project’s Code of Conduct, and conversations with multiple community managers in journalism in developing our Code of Conduct.)