Procedure for incident response in accordance with PyCon Austria Code of Conduct

This document summarises the procedures during PyCon Austria 2025.

Summary of processes

When the Code of Conduct team receives a report of a possible Code of Conduct violation, they will:

  • Acknowledge the receipt of the report.
  • Evaluate conflicts of interest.
  • Call for a discussion amongst Code of Conduct team members who do not have a conflict of interest.
  • Evaluate the reported incident.
  • Propose and vote on a response or action plan, if appropriate.
  • Follow up with the reported person.
  • Decide further responses.
  • Follow up with the reporter.

Acknowledgement of the report

Reporters should receive an e-mailed acknowledgement of the receipt of their report. The Code of Conduct team will aim to update the reporter regulary about the stage of any ongoing investigation.

Conflict of interest policy

Examples of conflicts of interest include:

  • The reporter or reported person is someone you have an important professional relationship with, either a manager, a colleague, or a direct client.
  • You have a romantic or platonic relationship with either the reporter or the reported person. It’s fine to participate if they are an acquaintance.
  • The reporter or reported person is your family member.
  • The reporter or reported person is a maintainer who regularly reviews your contributions.

Code of Conduct team members do not need to state why they have a conflict of interest, only that one exists. Other team members should not ask why the person has a conflict of interest.

Anyone who has a conflict of interest will remove themselves from the discussion of the incident, and recuse themselves from voting on a response to the report.

Evaluating a report

In evaluating a report the Code of Conduct team will consider the following, as well as any other considerations they feel appropriate:

Nature of incident

  • Is this a Code of Conduct violation? Is this behaviour on our list of inappropriate behaviour? Is it borderline inappropriate behaviour?
  • Did this occur inside the space of the PyCon Austria 2025 conference?

Risk

  • Does this incident include sexual harassment?
  • Does this pose a safety risk? Does the behaviour put a person’s physical safety at risk? Will this incident severely negatively impact someone’s mental health?
  • Is there a risk of this behaviour being repeated? Does the reported person understand why their behaviour was inappropriate? Is there an established pattern of behaviour from past reports?

Reports which involve higher risk may face more severe consequences than reports which involve lower risk.

Propose a plan to address the incident

The Code of Conduct team will determine a concrete plan that ensures the inappropriate behaviour is not repeated. The Code of Conduct team will also discuss what actions may need to be taken if the reported person does not agree to the proposed action plan.

Oftentimes, the Code of Conduct team will advise the reported person to be more mindful of their own language or actions that are considered as disrespectful and/or offensive to others in the community. The Code of Conduct team reserves the right to take other actions it deems necessary.

Propose a response

What follows are examples of possible responses to an incident report. This consequences list is not all-inclusive, and the Code of Conduct team reserves the right to take any action it deems necessary.

Possible private responses to an incident include:

  • Nothing, if the behaviour was determined to not be a Code of Conduct violation
  • A verbal or emailed warning
  • A final warning
  • Temporarily removing the reported person from the event
  • Permanently removing the reported person from the event
  • Warn other related organisations about this person

Follow up with the reported person

The Code of Conduct team will work with the event organisers to draft a response to the reported person. The e-mail should contain:

  • A description of the person’s behaviour in neutral language
  • The negative impact of that behaviour
  • A concrete proposal of an action plan
  • Any response to their behaviour

The Code of Conduct team should not state who reported this incident. They should attempt to anonymise any identifying information from the report.

Decide further responses

If the reported person provides additional context, the Code of Conduct team may need to re-evaluate the action plan and response.

Follow up with the reporter

A person who makes a report should receive a follow up email stating what action was taken in response to the report. If the team decided no response was needed, they should provide an email explaining why it was not a Code of Conduct violation, including if they think the report was not made in good faith.

Record the occurrence

The incident and the communications and any other relevant information should be recorded on the PyCon Austria’s archives for use in future Pycon Austria conferences. This is to ensure that the organisation is aware of any repeat offences.

Attribution

The PyCon Austria Code of Conduct is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. It is a modified version of the Europython Society code of conduct, to be found at https://www.europython-society.org/coc/.

Procedure for reporting Code of Conduct incidents

This document forms an integral part of the PyCon Austria 2025 Code of Conduct.

If you believe someone is in physical danger, including from themselves, the most important thing is to get that person’s help. Please contact the appropriate crisis number, non-emergency number, or police number. If you are a PyCon Austria attendee, you can consult with a volunteer or organiser to help find an appropriate number.

If you believe a Code of Conduct incident has occurred, we encourage you to report it. If you are unsure whether the incident is a violation, or whether the space where it happened is covered by the 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.

If you find that you need to make a report, and you cannot find the appropriate Code of Conduct reporting contact, you may report to the PyCon Austria on Code of Conduct email alias below. The PyCon Austria Code of Conduct team will handle your report. If this happens, please also mention that you could not find specific reporting information so that we can improve.

General reporting procedure

If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact a member of the Code of Conduct team immediately. They can be reached by email or phone call or WhatsApp call:

Report data

When you make a report via email, we suggest that you include:

  • Your contact info (so we can get in touch with you)
  • Type of incident, e.g. harassment, intimidation, etc.
  • Date and time of the incident
  • Location of incident
  • Any other information you think is relevant

The Code of Conduct team might contact you for more information.

Confidentiality

All reports will be kept confidential. When we discuss incidents with people who are reported, we will anonymise details as much as we can to protect reporter privacy.

However, some incidents happen in one-on-one interactions, and even if the details are anonymised, the reported person 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 conference attendees and online spaces safe. In some cases, we can compile several anonymised reports into a pattern of behaviour, and take action on that pattern.

For transparency, we may determine that a public statement will need to be made. In any case, the identities of all impacted people and reporters will remain confidential unless those individuals instruct us otherwise.

Report handling procedure

When you make a report to the Code of Conduct team, they will gather information about the incident according to the procedure for incident response.

After an incident responder takes the report, they will immediately consult with the rest of the Code of Conduct team, unless there is a conflict of interest, in which case any non-interested team members will be contacted (see Conflicts of Interest section below for more details).

If the incident is ongoing and needs to be immediately addressed, any Code of Conduct team member or organiser may take appropriate action to ensure the safety of everyone involved. If the situation requires it, this may take the form of a referral to an appropriate non-PyCon Austria agency, including the local police. PyCon Austria is not equipped to handle emergency situations.

If the incident is less urgent, the report will be discussed by the Code of Conduct team, who will discuss it to determine an appropriate response. Examples of possible incident responses are outlined in the Procedure For Incident Response.

Before the conference, the Code of Conduct team will review incident response procedures. After the conference, the Code of Conduct team will attend a debriefing session to discuss all incidents and determine any necessary follow-up actions.