Advances with SALT

Advances with SALT is a community event intended for networking and collaboration as well as learning. We value the participation of every member of the conference and want all attendees to have an enjoyable and fulfilling experience. Accordingly, all attendees are expected to show respect and courtesy to other attendees throughout the conference and to abide by the following Code of Conduct. Any issues can be brought to the confidential attention of the organizers. Thank you for helping make this a welcoming, friendly event for all.

Code of Conduct

The conference participants and broader SALT community are made up of members from around the globe with a diverse set of skills, personalities, and experiences. It is through these differences that our community experiences success and continued growth. We expect everyone in our community to follow these guidelines when interacting with others both inside and outside of our community. Our goal is to keep ours a positive, inclusive, successful, and growing community.

As members of the community,

• We pledge to treat all people with respect and provide a harassment- and bullying-free environment, regardless of sex, sexual orientation and/or gender identity, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, nationality, ethnicity, and religion. Harassment and other exclusionary behavior are not acceptable. In particular, sexual language and imagery, sexist, racist, or otherwise exclusionary jokes are not appropriate. Harassment includes but is not limited to violent threats or language directed against another person, posting sexually explicit or violent material, sharing private content without prior consent, such as emails sent privately or non­-publicly, unwelcome sexual attention, insults or bullying.
• We pledge to respect the work of others by recognizing acknowledgment/citation requests of original authors. As authors, we pledge to be explicit about how we want our own work to be cited or acknowledged.
• We pledge to welcome those interested in joining the community, and realize that including people with a variety of opinions and backgrounds will only serve to enrich our community. In particular, discussions relating to pros/cons of various techniques, and so on, are welcome, but these should be done with respect, taking proactive measures to ensure that all participants are heard and feel confident that they can freely express their opinions.
• We pledge to welcome questions and answer them respectfully, paying particular attention to those new to the community. We pledge to provide respectful criticisms and feedback in talk, discussion and poster sessions at the conference and in follow-up communication.
• We pledge to be conscientious of the perceptions of the wider community and to respond to criticism respectfully. We will strive to model behaviors that encourage productive debate and disagreement, both within our community and where we are criticized. We will treat those outside our community with the same respect as people within our community.
• We pledge to help the entire community follow the code of conduct, and to not remain silent when we see violations of the code of conduct. We will take action when members of our community violate this code by contacting members of the LOC or talking privately with the person. The LOC can be contacted by email through conference2018@salt.ac.za or in person. Encarni Romero Colmenero (erc@salt.ac.za) or Rosalind Skelton (ros@saao.ac.za) can be contacted directly. All emails or conversations of a sensitive nature will be treated with the strictest confidence.

This code of conduct applies to all community situations online and offline, including the conference itself, mailing lists, forums, social media, social events associated with the conference, and one-to-one interactions.

Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately. Attendees violating these rules may be asked to leave the event at the sole discretion of the conference organizers. If a participant engages in harassing behaviour, whether before, during or after the event, the conference organizers reserve the right to take any action they deem appropriate, which could include excluding the person from participating or imposing a temporary or permanent ban from the activities or future events.

This code of conduct has been adapted from the Astropy Community Code of Conduct, Python in Astronomy Code of Conduct and .Astronomy Code of Conduct.