Policies

• Children
• Accessibility
• Photography and Recording
• General Conduct and Harassment

Children

Kids are welcome at Consonance, but the convention does not provide babysitting or other drop-off services.

Children need adults

Parents or guardians must make their own child minding arrangements at all times and must not leave child-in-tow aged kids unattended at any time. Guardians of older children should remain close enough to supervise and assist their free-range kids, and in no case should leave the hotel without either their kids or arranging for an on-site responsible adult.

Thing kids may and must not do at Consonance

Children are invited to attend all concerts, but guardians must take responsibility for removing them if they become disruptive. In cases where a free-range child or escaped child-in-tow is being disruptive, a staff member may take the child out to the hall or Boardroom and attempt to reunite the child with its parent or guardian.

There will not be an official children's program this year, though some events especially suited to children may be marked as such. Parenting approaches and children vary widely, so we ask that you use your own judgement in deciding whether a particular item is right for your child.

Accessibility

Our desire is to make the activities of the convention available to as wide a cross-section of filkers as possible within the constraints of our volunteer and financial resources. If you have specific limitations or concerns, please contact us at info@consonance.org (sorry, pointer's off, use figmo8@comcast.net for now) (or if something comes up on site, speak to a staff member at the convention) to discuss what we can do to make it easier for you to attend and enjoy the convention.

Currently, registration, concerts, open filk, most other programming, dealer's room and child space are on a single floor accessible by elevator or stairs. Con suite is on another floor reached by elevator.

Photography and Recording

Photography and audio or video recording for personal use are generally permitted unless announced, posted, or requested otherwise by staff or potential subject (in which case it is forbidden).

You are responsible for clearing all rights and permissions before sharing photographs or recordings, whether over social media or in other internet or traditional media contexts.

General Conduct and Harassment

Consonance is a place for people to share and enjoy filk music. It is important to us that you have a good time - but it is just as important that everyone else have a good time. Please be considerate and polite to others - even those whose beliefs, lifestyles or physical characteristics and abilities are different from your own.

Being considerate includes not getting so carried away that you interfere with the safety of others or their ability to enjoy the convention and hotel facilities. And yes, it should again go without saying, but don't harass people. It's not funny, sexy or even remotely ok.

Harassment and disruptive behavior includes, but is not limited to, touching people without their consent, photography or recording of people who have asked not to be photographed or recorded, stalking, picking on, pestering, and persisting in behaviour or attentions towards someone which that person has indicated are unwelcome.

See this link for a more extensive discussion of harassment in the context of a filk convention.

Finally, Consonance does reserve the right, at the discretion of the convention organizers, to limit convention access, expel or ban members without refund or other compensation in cases of harassing or disruptive behavior.

If You're Being Harassed or Witness Harassment:

• Go where you need to and call in whomever you need to to feel safe.
• Talk to con staff about the incident or situation.

  How do I find con staff?

  In person, our badges say staff. If you can't read badge print from a distance, no worries! You can ask after anyone on the staff list. Ravan in the dealer's room or any staff managing the reg desk tend to stay in one place, which may make them a good starting point.

  You can text or call the help number in the program book

  You can email help@consonance.org - although there's some risk it won't be seen immediately.

  What do I say?

  The first thing is to let us know that there is a problem. We'll work with you to find a place and staff member(s) that you feel comfortable with. Then we will want to know what happened/is happening, and (as best you can describe) who's involved or ways we might identify them.

  What happens next?

  • Next, we'll confer a bit and come up with a plan of action which we will present to you and/or the person being harassed.
  • You can ok it, point out aspects that concern you, or ask us to do something differently.
  • Once we have agreed upon a plan, we carry it out.
  • Finally, the incident will be written up for reference by the convention staff, partly so that we can look at what we can do better next time, partly to help us spot any worrying patterns.

  But what kind of "plan"?

  Different situations require different solutions.
  Plans might include asking the person to stop the specific problem behavior and/or to stay clear of you and not contact you during the convention. In other cases, it may be more appropriate to expel the person or ban them. In a particularly serious case, it might be necessary to call in hotel security or law enforcement. Other options may be proposed as seems appropriate. Proposals may be simple or multi-phased. If you have specific ideas about what you would like to have happen, please tell us.
  In all cases, the plan should have specific steps and include ways for us to check in with you and make sure that any solution we put in place is actually working.