Membership

How can I join the group?

Find your location and start the process from there (right now, just skip straight to Nashville).

What is the Code of Conduct?

All group members and attendees are required to comply with the Code of Conduct.

The Short Version

Be respectful of other people, respectfully ask people to stop if you are bothered; respect privacy; group leads are not paid and have day jobs, so please be respectful of their time; and if you can’t resolve an issue with someone else you should contact the admins. If you are being a problem, it will be made clear to you, and you may be removed from the group.

1.0 The Code of Conduct

1.1 Respect

Tech Founder Community is an community for professionals in the who are actively learning, practicing, and working in technology. We recognize and celebrate the creativity and collaboration of our independent members and the diversity of skills, talents, experiences, cultures, and opinions that they bring to your community.

Tech Founder Community desires to be an inclusive environment and believes in treating all individuals respectfully, regardless of gender or gender identity (including transgender status), sexual orientation, age, disability, nationality, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), political affiliation, or career path.

We value respectful behavior above individual opinions.

Respectful behavior includes but is not limited to:

Be considerate, kind, constructive, and helpful.
Avoid demeaning, discriminatory, harassing, hateful, or physically threatening behavior, speech, and imagery.
If you’re not sure, ask someone instead of assuming. No, really. Just ask the admins. We’d rather hear from you than hear about something you said or did after the fact, and we are here to help.
Don’t be a bystander. Role model respectful behaviour, but also help to address disrespect when you see it.
Threatening behavior outside this community may be considered a violation of this code of conduct at the discretion of the admins.

1.2 Privacy

This community is not a public space. However, no one has signed an non-disclosure agreement (“NDA”) to participate, and you should not presume anything you say here will remain private, so act accordingly. Protect IP and legally-protected information.

For attribution of specific content found in this community, we ask that you ask the originator of the content for permission.

1.3 Not For Profit

While this community is designed to encourage and enable thriving businesses, and that frequently benefits whatever company or individual a member is currently working for, this is not a place for obvious commercial activities such as recruiting, marketing, or other solicitation, except in venues explicitly dedicated to that purpose.

Non-obvious commercial activity includes things such as well-intentioned user surveys of a specific channel or responding to a request for tools or services with information about what your company provides. In these situations, we ask that you:

Ask permission of the group before posting the solicitation or information
State clear intent for the purpose
Listen to the response of your peers

We believe the above protocol is generally useful and should be used when there are any doubts.

If you join this community simply to take value rather than contribute, the community will quickly notice and react. If you are wondering whether a specific action is commercial or not, please ask the group lead.

1.4 Resolve Peacefully

We believe peer-to-peer discussions, feedback, and corrections can help build a stronger, safer, and more welcoming community.

If you see someone violating any part of this Code of Conduct, we urge you to respectfully dissuade them from such behavior. Expect that others in the community wish to help keep the community respectful, and welcome your input in doing so.

If you experience disrespectful behavior toward yourself or anyone else and feel in any way unable or unwilling to respond or resolve it respectfully (for any reason), please immediately bring it to the attention of an admin. We want to hear from you about anything that you feel is disrespectful, threatening, or just something that could make someone feel distressed in any way. We will listen and work to resolve the matter.

1.5 Apologize for Mistakes

Should you catch yourself behaving disrespectfully, or be confronted as such, listen intently, own up to your words and actions, and apologize accordingly. No one is perfect, and even well-intentioned people make mistakes. What matters is how you handle them and that you avoid repeating them in the future.

1.6 Consequences

If you feel a message should be deleted, please refer to the Deleting Content section below.

If you are unable to resolve a situation peacefully, please refer to our “Incidence Process” section below and choose a course of action that suits the situation.

If the admins determine that anyone is violating any part of this Code of Conduct, the admins may take any action they deem appropriate within this Slack team, up to and including expulsion and exclusion from NashDev Slack.

As admins, we will seek to resolve conflicts peacefully and in a manner that is positive for the community. We can’t foresee every situation, and thus if in the admin team’s judgment that the best thing to do is to ask a disrespectful individual to leave, we will do so.

2.0 Deleting Content

Admins may delete messages that violate the Code of Conduct.

The authors of those messages will be notified and may be given a chance to modify the message themselves.

2.1 What, When, and How

Admins may come across or be notified of content on NashDev that violates the Code of Conduct. In some situations, this may lead to an admin deleting the message (or messages) that violate the CoC. Messages that are most likely to be deleted are commercial solicitations, disrespectful messages to other members, or links to disturbing or distressing content without appropriate measures to warn of or hide the content (including image uploads and unfurls).

Ideally, another NashDev member notices this content and contacts the original poster, who then modifies or deletes the message so that it is no longer problematic. In this case, no further admin action is required. If admin action is desired, due to lack of response or any other reason, an admin will notify the original poster of the violation and the need to reword or remove the problematic message. The admin will also specify a time after which admin action will be taken to delete the content if it is not addressed. This time may be as little as a few minutes, or as much as 24 hours.

The determination of how much time is allowed is up to the admin team, but the following context will be used to help determine the time before admin action:

How blatant the violation is - How likely it is to be seen by others (higher-volume channels get less time) - How likely it is to trigger negative reactions in others

Additional consequences beyond the removal of content are up to the admin team, per the same incident process found in the following section “Incident Process”.

3.0 Incident Process

Our brief governing philosophy:

Please strive to resolve a non-heinous situation by yourself; if it’s a heinous situation, please contact an admin immediately.

3.1 Something is Off

A significant part of the admin job is the management of incidents on the NashDev Slack, but ideally the community (that’s you) has both the tools and the desire to resolve many situations without admin support.

The Code of Conduct exists to give members a model idea of what is and isn’t acceptable in NashDev including behavior, marketing activity, and etiquette. If you experience strange behavior in a channel and are wondering if it’s acceptable, please first consult the CoC.

With CoC clarity in hand, please contact the member(s) and explain:

This is the activity I saw which I have an issue with, - It’s not allowed by the CoC, and, - Let’s figure out how to resolve it. We ask in non-heinous cases to start with member-driven resolution. If you are not comfortable with this approach, go ahead and jump to “It’s Admin O’Clock”.

Ideally, the above discussion can help resolve the situation. It often does. If it doesn’t, if you are not comfortable contacting the member(s), or if this is an obvious heinous situation, jump to “It’s Admin O’Clock”.

3.2 It’s Admin O’Clock

Administrators can be contacted directly, in the #support channel by typing !help. You may also contact an admin directly, they are listed at the bottom of this document. Please choose the path most comfortable for you.

When you contact an admin(s), provide the following:

The activity you saw that you have an issue with, - If applicable, the CoC violation.

3.2.1 Things to know:

If you need to contact an admin directly and are not sure who is available, please type !help in #support and directly contact the admin that responds. - Admins are committed to a first response within 24 hours. Usually faster. If you directly contact a single admin, it could be longer depending on their availability and work schedules. - We will strive to keep your concerns private where possible. If an incident involved only 2 people, this is not possible. If people demand to know who has complained, we will not divulge this information as we want people to feel comfortable bringing concerns to the admin team. - Once you’ve contacted an admin, they’ll help you triage the incident.

3.2.2 Formal Incident Process

In the case of a formal incident being reported, there are two possible resolution paths:

Raising a concern to the admin to give them context, or, - Filing a formal complaint that will result in administrative action.

In both cases, the reporter needs to provide the following information to the admin:

What’s the nature of the incident or Code of Conduct violation? - Who is involved in this incident? - What material supports this situation? - Any privacy concerns? (Reporter consent is required before sharing any information regarding the incident)

With this information in hand, the admin will:

Work to determine whether this is a raised concern or a formal complaint with the reporter. In the case of a raised concern, the understanding is there may be no action other than administrative awareness. - Ask clarifying questions of the reporter because every incident is different. - Work with publicly available content to confirm the report. - Talk with their fellow administrators to gather perspective.

The admin may deem it necessary to talk to the accused member(s) to gather additional perspective.

With this information in hand, the admin will determine a consequence. Consequences include but are not limited to:

A Strike - NashDev operates on a three strike system whereby non-suspending CoC violations can result in one or more strikes. Admins will use their judgement and historical precedent in determining what constitutes a strike. - When a member receives three strikes, they will be suspended from NashDev for a period of time or permanently depending on the violation. Multiple strikes can be assessed depending on the violation. - We do not have a definition of what does and does not constitute a strike. As of March 11, 2020 we are keeping a record of all administrative activity to help calibrate strikes. - Do Not Contact - A member may not contact (in any fashion, messages or emoji) either publicly or privately, designated members of the Slack for a predetermined period of time. - Temporary suspension - A member is suspended from NashDev Slack for a predetermined period of time. - Permanent suspension - A member is permanently banned from NashDev Slack

For any type of suspension, the admins will conduct a private vote based on the incident. Majority wins. With the defined incident and consequence in hand, the admin will present the following to the accused member:

This is what occurred. - This incident is confidential. - This is how I confirmed what occurred. - This is what I decided in terms of consequence. In the case of a non-ban action, explain the terms of Do Not Contact, Strikes, Etc.

For Strikes, members will be alerted to the strike policy and the number of current strikes they have.

For Do Not Contact, members will receive the time period when they can not contact other member(s)

For Temporary Suspension, members will receive the time period when they can not be a part of NashDev Slack.

For Permanent Suspension, members will receive the content above and then permanently removed from NashDev Slack.

The Administrators are committed to resolve incidents within five working days.