If you believe someone is in physical danger or serious harm, immediately inform a volunteer or staff member or security staff or call the Gardaí (112).

If you experience or witness harassment or  any behaviour that is not in line with TechFoundHer values please share your concerns. If you are unsure whether the incident is a violation, or whether the space where it happened is covered by this Code of Conduct, we encourage you to still report it.

We are fine with receiving reports where we decide to take no action for the sake of creating a safer space but we do ask that you share the concern in a timely manner during the event if it’s possible.

During the event you can make a report:

  • To a TechFoundHer crew member or event organiser , who will be introduced as part of the house keeping for the event.
  • Email info@techfoundher.com using the following template at all times 

In the event of a conflict of interest, you may directly contact any of the lead incident responders:

Report Data

If you make a report via email or phone, please include:

  • Your contact info (so we can get in touch with you if we need to follow up)
  • Date and time of the incident
  • Location of incident
  • Your role ie attendee, speaker etc
  • Your contact information

Please don’t not share the names of individuals or a description of the incident. 

Confidentiality

All reports will be shared with the minimum number of people in the TechFoundHer team. When we discuss incidents as a team, we will anonymize details as much as we can to protect reporter privacy and the privacy of those who have been reported on.

However, some incidents happen in one-on-one interactions, and even if the details are anonymized, the persons  involved in the incident may be able to guess who made the report. If you have concerns about retaliation or your personal safety, please note those in your report. We still encourage you to report, so that we can support you while keeping our event attendees safe. In some cases, we can compile several anonymized reports into a pattern of behaviour, and take action on that pattern.

In some cases we may determine that a public statement will need to be made. If that’s the case, the identities of all victims and reporters will remain confidential unless those individuals instruct us otherwise.

Report Handling Procedure

When you make a report to one of the TechFoundHer crew members they will investigate  the incident according to the TechFoundHer Response Procedure.

After an incident responder takes the report, they will immediately consult with the lead incident responders (Mairin Murray and Vicky Twomey-Lee).

If the incident is ongoing and needs to be immediately addressed, any one of the lead incident responders may take appropriate action to ensure the safety of everyone involved.

If the incident is less urgent, the three incident leads will meet within 24 hours to determine an appropriate response. Examples of possible incident responses are outlined in the TechFoundHer Response Procedure.

Before the event, staff will have a mandatory meeting where incident response procedures will be outlined. After the event, all incident responders will attend a debriefing session with the lead responders to discuss all incidents and determine any necessary follow-up actions.

Following Up With Reporters

Within one week of an incident report, the lead responders will follow up with the person who made the report and provided their contact information. The follow up may include:

  • An acknowledgment that the TechFoundHer lead responders discussed the situation
  • Whether or not the report was determined to be a violation of the Code of Conduct
  • What actions (if any) were taken to correcting the reporter behaviour

In some cases, the lead responders may need to ask additional questions about the incident in order to identify the reported person.

Conflicts of Interest

If an incident responder has a conflict of interest for a report, they will recuse themselves from the discussion and handling of the incident. The incident documentation will not be available to them, and they will excuse themselves from any conversations involving handling the incident.

Note: TechFoundHer Code of Conduct is a living document. Last updated: 2023-02-25

This procedure has been adapted from PyConUS “Procedures for reporting incidents” which itself was adapted from the Ada Initiative’s guide titled “Conference anti-harassment/Responding to Reports”, the Django Project reporting guidelines (CC BY 3.0) and has been updated by Otter Tech.