Code of Conduct

V(g)ACT mission is to foster and empower the local Game Audio community through collaboration, education, and inclusivity. Our goal is to create connections across all experience levels and encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration; strengthening relationships within the Pacific Northwest game development scene.

We are dedicated to fostering a community for everyone regardless of disability, mental illness, neurotype, gender, physical appearance, body, age, race, ethnicity, nationality, language, or religion (or lack thereof).

We expect all community participants 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 matters.

Open Source & Culture Citizenship

A supplemental goal of this Code of Conduct is to increase open source and culture citizenship 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. Members of the V(g)ACT community are encouraged to examine and adjust their own behaviour in accordance with the community Code Of Conduct. 

Expected Behaviour

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

• Participate in an authentic, active and inclusive way. In doing so, you contribute to the health and longevity of this community. Hold a hand out, introduce someone new, and certainly make sure to introduce yourself!

• Exercise consideration and respect in your speech and actions.

• Refrain from demeaning, discriminatory, or harassing behaviour and speech.

• Be mindful of the feelings of your fellow participants. Alert community leaders if you notice a dangerous situation, someone in distress, or violations of this Code of Conduct, even if they seem inconsequential.

Unacceptable Behaviour

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

• Offensive comments including the use of sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist or otherwise discriminatory jokes and language

• Deliberate misgendering or use of “dead” or rejected names

• Deliberate “outing” of any privately conveyed information without consent except as necessary to protect other Vancouver Sound Designer community members or other vulnerable people from intentional abuse.

• Unwelcome comments regarding a person’s lifestyle choices and practices, including those related to food, health, parenting, drugs, and employment

• Violence, threats of violence, incitement of violence or violent language directed against another person including encouraging a person to commit suicide or to engage in self-harm

• Harassing photography or recording, including logging online activity for harassment purposes

• Physical contact and simulated physical contact (e.g., textual descriptions like “hug” or “backrub”) without consent or after a request to stop

• Unwelcome sexual attention, including: sexualized comments or jokes, inappropriate touching, groping, and unwelcome sexual advances

• Pattern of inappropriate social contact, such as requesting/assuming inappropriate levels of intimacy with others

• Continued one-on-one communication after requests to cease

• Publication of non-harassing private communication without consent by the involved parties

• Deliberate intimidation, stalking or following (online or in-person)

• Posting or threatening to post other people’s personally identifying information ("doxxing")

• Gratuitous or off-topic sexual images or behaviour in spaces where they are not appropriate

• Sustained disruption of discussion

• Advocating for, or encouraging, any of the above behaviour

Consequences of Unacceptable Behaviour

Unacceptable behaviour from any community member, including community leaders, will not be tolerated. Anyone asked to stop unacceptable behaviour is expected to comply immediately.

If a participant engages in harassing behaviour, community leaders may take any action they deem appropriate, up to and including temporary or permanent expulsion from all V(g)ACT spaces (online & offline) without warning and without identification of the offending person as a harasser to other V(g)ACT community members or the general public.

Reporting Guidelines

If you are subject to or witness unacceptable behaviour, or have any other concerns, please contact a community leader immediately, in-person or online at contact@vgact.ca. If the person who is harassing you is a community leader, they will recuse themselves from handling your incident.

All reports will be handled in the strictest confidence. We will respond as promptly as we can. In some cases, we may determine that a public statement will need to be made. If that’s the case, the identities of all the victims and reporters will remain confidential unless those individuals instruct us otherwise.

The V(g)ACT community prioritizes marginalized people’s safety over privileged people’s comfort. Community leaders 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,” or “I’m not discussing this with you”

• Communicating in a “tone” you don’t find congenial

• Criticisms of racist, sexist, cissexist, or otherwise oppressive behaviour or assumptions

Updates

This code of conduct is subject to change and V(g)ACT members will be notified should any changes be made.

License and attribution

This Code of Conduct is based on the Audio Tree House Code of Conduct, the Code of Conduct for the Stumptown Syndicate and the XOXO festival Code of Conduct. All as well as this document are distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlikeLicense.

You are free to:

• Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.

• Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.

• The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.