Code of Conduct
Reporting Guidelines
GEneral
If you would like to report a violation of our Code of Conduct, please fill out this report form or email us at info@openmarketsinstitute.org. You are welcome to submit a report anonymously. If you believe anyone is in physical danger, please notify appropriate law enforcement immediately.
If a person involved in a report is on our team, they will not be included in responding to the report. All reports are kept confidential. In some cases we may determine that a public statement will need to be made, but the identities of all victims and reporters will remain confidential unless otherwise agreed upon.
While we prioritize responding to reports about incidents occurring in Open Markets Institute spaces, we welcome reports of harassment outside of our spaces. As such, we reserve the right to exclude people from our events and public forums based on past behavior, including behavior outside of our spaces or behavior toward people who are not in our direct community.
We also reserve the right to reject any report we believe to have been made in bad faith or intended to silence legitimate criticism.
In your report please include:
Your contact info (so we can get in touch with you if we need to follow up; if you are submitting anonymously, you can use another contact method).
Names (real, nicknames, or pseudonyms) of any individuals involved. If there were other witnesses besides you, please try to include them as well.
When and where the incident occurred. Please be as specific as possible.
Your account of what occurred. If there is a publicly available record (e.g., a mailing list archive, a tweet, etc.) please include a link.
Any extra context you believe existed for the incident.
If you believe this incident is ongoing.
Any other information you believe we should have.
Requested Information
Reporting Procedure
The following process will take place after you submit a report:
You will receive an email from the Open Markets Institute team acknowledging receipt. We aim for swift responses.
The Open Markets Team will then review the incident and determine:
What happened.
Whether this event constitutes a code of conduct violation.
Who the bad actor was.
Whether this is an ongoing situation, or if there is a threat to anyone's physical safety.
If it is determined to be an ongoing incident or a threat to physical safety, our immediate priority will be to protect everyone involved. This means we may delay an "official" response until we believe that the situation has ended and that everyone is physically safe.
Once we have a complete account of the events, Open Markets Institute will make a decision as to how to respond. Responses may include:
Nothing (if we determine no violation occurred).
A private reprimand from the working group to the individual(s) involved.
A public reprimand.
An imposed leave (e.g. suspending a person from use of a public forum or attending an event for a period of time, etc.).
A permanent ban from some or all Open Markets’ spaces (mailing lists, events, webinars, etc.).
A request for a public or private apology.
If we determine there to be a violation, Open Markets Institute will respond to the person who filed the report with an explanation of an intended resolution.
Once we have taken final action, we will contact the original reporter to let them know what action we took. We'll take into account feedback from the reporter on the appropriateness of our response, but we don't guarantee we'll act on it.
Finally, Open Markets Institute will record a formal report on the violation. We may or may not choose to make that report public (with anonymity protected).
Reconsideration
Any of the parties directly involved or affected can request reconsideration of Open Markets’ decision. To make such a request, contact us at info@openmarketsinstitute.org with your request and motivation and we will review the case.