Volunteer Supporters Network/Safe space policy for video conferences

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Volunteer Supporters Network

The Volunteer Supporters Network's safe space policy for video conferences

Basic rules for all participants

• Friendliness and mutual respect – contribute to a pleasant atmosphere and a climate of friendliness and fairness. Refrain from statements that are intimidating, degrading, offensive or discriminatory, or that could be understood as such, even if you are talking about non-participants. Threats of violence, incitement to violence and unwanted sexual attention are unacceptable.
• Openness – Be open for all Wikimedians to participate. Restrictions can be made for organizational or technical reasons. Persons on the Wikimedia Foundation Event Ban list are excluded from participating in the video conference.
• Identity – Do not attempt to impersonate another person. Do not misrepresent your affiliation with any individual or entity.
• Privacy – Respect the self chosen degree of anonymity of all participants. Allow participation with audio only (without video). Use the names of the participants, which they themselves indicate in the video conference. If video and/or audio recordings are planned, all participants must be informed of this, including the intended purpose, before the start of the meeting. Still images (screenshots) may only be taken during the video conference with the express consent of all participants concerned.
• Data protection – Do not collect any personal data of the participants in the context of the video conference. For instance, do not demand that participants send you wikimails or reply to your wikimails. In the case of written notes intended for publication, use quotations that can be individually assigned sparingly and carefully. Never disclose or threaten to disclose private information about a person without explicit consent.

Facilitation

• Recognizability – The participant in the facilitation role is automatically identified during the video conference (e. g. with a star symbol, as "facilitator" or as "administrator", depending on the platform). Ideally, the facilitator should be the person who starts or leads the video conference. If this is not possible for technical reasons or if the facilitation role has to change during a video conference, please point this out to the other participants.
• Technical role – During the video conference, the facilitator has extended technical rights. This includes the ability to exclude other participants.
• Social role – The facilitator is expected to support compliance with these rules with his or her extended technical rights and to coordinate additional measures if necessary. The facilitator may take any action to enforce these rules, including excluding participants and terminating the video conference.

Enforcement

• Personal responsibility – All participants are responsible for compliance with these rules to the best of their ability.
• Reporting – If you believe that someone else is not following this policy, you have the following options: (1) point out the terms openly, (2) inform only the facilitator (for example, by using the direct chat function) and/or (3) inform the Wikimedia affiliate that offers the respective video conference platform.
• Consequences – In case of violations, the facilitator can act immediately. The Wikimedia affiliate providing the video conference platform may subsequently exclude participants from funding and a future participation in video conferences as well as, in the case of particularly serious violations, also pass on data to third parties.