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Codes of Conduct: Who’s using them now?

TL;DR – Many events in North America, Australia, the UK and even Asia have Codes of Conduct. Those in continental Europe, however have very few.

It’s 12 months to the day when I last set out to answer this question and in just the last short year there has certainly been a lot of change. The good news is that there are now many events who are actively implementing anti-harassment practices, making it practical to highlight those that are doing well in addition to calling out those that are lagging behind.

While Codes of Conduct are certainly not the be all and end all* of preventing and responding to harassment in our community, and certainly should be backed up policies and procedures to enforce them, they still represent a good first step. Anecdotally I’ve heard of examples of people (both organisers and attendees) being empowered by CoCs to take action in response to instances of inappropriate behaviour.

I’m going to go through some international events and ask the yes/no question of whether they have a Code of Conduct. This just looks at events, not the schools or organisations who run them. It won’t necessarily capture every event with a code (some may embed it in their registration process, or their parent organisation** may have one – but in these cases they could make it more available, or they plan to have one for next year’s event) and it says nothing about whether the organisation has the supporting practices necessary to implement the Code of Conduct. So consider it a rough survey.

This is also not intended to be a definitive list of international or national events – I’ve tried to include more events that do have a code of conduct but only listed the more notable events that don’t. If I’ve made a mistake on one of these, or there’s another event you’d like me to include please let me know in the comments.

Here’s the list grouped by region but otherwise in no particular order.

Europe

  • Herräng Dance Camp – No. The largest, longest running and most international Lindy Hop event has recently revamped its website for 2016, but there’s no code as of yet. Herräng holds a special place in my heart but as the flagship event for Lindy Hop its lack of anti-harassment policies is woefully inadequate. This is despite numerous suggestions to the camp’s owners of the need for anti-harassment policies.
  • Dragon Swing – No.
  • European Swing Dance Championships – No.
  • Rock that Swing Festival – No. However their website for 2016 is not yet live.
  • The Snowball – Yes-ish.  It’s only a short statement about what’s not tolerated and who to go to for help.***
  • Lindy Shock – No.
  • Studio Hop Summer Camp – No.
  • Leapin’ Lindy – No.
  • Swing in Milan – No.
  • Swing and Swing – No.
  • Policoro in Swing – No. Although their website for 2016 is not yet live.
  • Smokey Feet – No.
  • Swing/Balboa Castle Camp – No.
  • Torino Swing Festival – No.
  • BarSwingOna – No.
  • Harlem – No. Although their website for 2016 is not yet live.
  • Ljubljana Street Swing Festival – No.
  • Grenoble Swing Dance Festival – No.
  • Winter Jump – No.

UK

North America

  • International Lindy Hop Championships – No. I have a feeling there was a discussion about this during Nina Gilkenson’s interview on The Track (it’s a shame that more transcripts aren’t available) about what they’re doing around ILHC but I can’t find anything on the website.

Asia

  • Camp Swing It – No. Possibly the longest running event in Korea, that is receiving an increasing number of foreign visitors.****
  • Seajam – Yes. Although it’s only a short section in their general terms and conditions.
  • Singapore Lindy Revolution – Yes.
  • Vietnam Lindy Exchange – No.

Australia/New Zealand

For the Australian events I’ve gone off the list from Dogpossum (which is both more extensive and goes into more detail).

* I also think that one could, in theory, have a robust approach to preventing and responding to harassment that doesn’t feature a CoC but I haven’t seen any example in the Lindy Hop community.

** Yehoodi has a short list of schools and other events that have Codes of Conduct.

*** I think that the ‘How to get help’ part is one of the more important parts of a Code of Conduct which actually names the people you should talk to if you’ve experienced or witnessed harassment or have other concerns and how to get in touch with them (and doesn’t just say ‘find an organiser’)

**** Though I hear that the Korean scene has some pretty good enforcement on bad behaviour, not only will they kick people out of venues for bad floorcraft (for example), but organisers talk to each other about as well.

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