Apogaea Event Code of Conduct
Approved by Apogaea Board of Directors vote 5/21/17
Apogaea strives to build community and produce events that promote our Mission statement of supporting a culture of creativity and self-expression. We also promote the 10 Principles of Burning Man. Through the following Code of Conduct, we aim to promote a safe and fun environment for all participants.
- At all events organized by Apogaea, participants are responsible for their own behavior and for resolving their own issues.
- Apogaea strongly suggests behaving in a manner that does not make other participants feel unsafe or threatened.
- Apogaea will not condone any behavior that endangers its ability to hold the annual regional event and other community events.
- Participants may report any incident in which another participant is behaving in an abusive, intimidating, threatening, or unsafe manner to a Ranger or BOD member.
- Physical hazards, such as unsafe art installations or fires, should be referred to Rangers immediately.
- Children under 18 years of age can attend the regional event only if accompanied at all times by a parent, legal guardian, or other responsible party.
- At all events organized by Apogaea, participants are expected to adhere to the principles of consent regarding sexual activity and touching. Consent is reached when someone agrees, gives permission, or says “yes” to sexual activity or touching with other persons. Participants must be free to say “yes” or “no” or stop the activity at any point. A person cannot consent to sex if they are incapacitated by drugs or alcohol.
Event(s) Eviction Policy
Apogaea wishes for you to be free to create art and interact with others. Although we try to have as few rules as possible, we must have some. If you witness a violation of any of these rules, feel free to correct the situation yourself if possible. If you do not feel comfortable with that, please inform one of the Rangers (wearing a tan Ranger shirt) or someone in the Info Booth.
The following offenses will get you removed from the event:
- No ticket/wristband (all participants, no exceptions)
- Helping someone sneak into the event
- Swimming or wading in water features
- Trespassing in gas well areas
- Failure of parents to ensure minors under the age of 18 wear wristbands or file “Tiny Human Tracking Form” with Rangers
- Failing to ensure that a child for which you are responsible has proper adult supervision at all times
- Children 12 and under must under the direct control of a responsible adult at all times
- It is required that any minor (under the age of 18) at Apogaea be able to find and identify their legal guardian at all times
- Allowing a minor (under the age of 18) for whom you are responsible for to violate any of the stated event rules and regulations
- Photographing another participant without their consent or taking photos/video for commercial purposes
- Vending or commerce of any kind
- Failing to respect boundaries
- Failing to adhere to the principles of consent. Consent is reached when someone agrees, gives permission, or says “yes” to sexual activity or touching with other persons. Participants must be free to say “yes” or “no” or stop the activity at any point. A person cannot consent to sex if they are incapacitated by drugs or alcohol.
- Unsafe driving
- Malicious destruction of property
- Possession of weapons
- Possession of alcohol if under 21
- Serving alcohol to someone under 21
- Intoxicated behavior
- Disrespect of the land such as digging, felling trees or limbs, etc.
- Violating any of the fire rules
- Violation of DMV rules
- Harassing wildlife
Laser Policy
Handheld lasers are NOT ALLOWED!
Stationary lasers MUST be registered with placement before the event!
Handheld Lasers: At Burning Man 2014, a Ranger was permanently blinded in one eye and partially blinded in the other by handheld lasers used in an irresponsible manner. For this reason handheld lasers shall not be used in any capacity at Apogaea.
Stationary Lasers: Stationary lasers must be registered in advance with placement. Placement will inspect lasers upon installation. Lasers found violating these rules are not permitted. Stationary lasers must abide by FDA regulations.
Pets, Animals & Service Animals
Absolutely no animals or pets are allowed at Apogaea, unless the animal is registered for service with legitimate paperwork and a service vest. In these cases, the following terms & conditions apply:
- Service animals are allowed if trained to perform tasks to aid a person with a disability.
- Service animals must be under handler control at all times and the handler must take effective measures to control them. This includes picking up their waste. This also means that you can’t just lock the animal in an RV all day. It must be with a handler at all times!
- Service animals cannot be a safety issue or acting aggressively.
- If the service animal or handler breaks any of these ADA standards of service animal behavior, they may be asked to leave the event.
Warnings and Disinvitation/Watch List Policy
Members of the Apogaea community may receive a formal warning letter or a formal letter asking them not to attend future events from the Apogaea Board of Directors. Individuals may be asked not to attend some or all Apogaea events, or asked not to volunteer, in some or all roles, with Apogaea. This may result if someone:
- Has been the subject of a pattern of reports of violating the Code of Conduct or other safety policies that endanger the event or its participants’ safety;
- Has any well-substantiated report of a sufficiently problematic violation of the Code of Conduct or other policies; and/or
- Continues problematic behavior after receiving a Warning from Apogaea about such behavior.
How does it work when people are disinvited, and added to the watch list?
- Can be instituted for one year or permanently.
- One-year terms will be reviewed by the Board of Directors or an appointed Conduct Committee annually and renewed if necessary.
Appeals Process
- Individuals can appeal directly with the Board.
- Appeals will be handled at the next scheduled Board meeting.
- Only one appeal request per individual will be heard per year.
Publishing
The Board will determine if and how to make any announcement, if such announcement would benefit the Apogaea community or other communities. This will be determined on a case by case basis.
Informing Individuals Of Their Status
- When a report has been made about an individual, they will be informed of the outcome of that report, including any actions taken.
- In the absence of an official report, the individual will be informed of the results of any investigation and resulting actions when such investigation completes. The investigation will be managed by the Board of Directors.
Inquiries About Warned/Watch-Listed Individuals
Inquiries about individuals can be made to the Board of Directors, and will be handled on a case by case basis.
Volunteering
Apogaea reserves the right to prevent someone from volunteering in particular capacities or any capacity.
Restraining Orders
If two individuals who wish to attend an event have restraining orders in place, it is up to the individuals to follow the orders by either not attending the event, having one individual attend the event and not the other individual, or maintaining the prescribed distance between one another at the event. In the case where a restraining order is violated at an event, this will be referred to local law enforcement.
Apogaea Social Media Guidelines & Policy
Approved by Apogaea Board of Directors vote 5/21/17
Apogaea, Inc. recognizes that many community members and volunteers participate in social media services for their own personal use and often, to discuss Apogaea, Burning Man and personal experiences within the culture. This accessibility and discourse contributes to the important long-term tradition and continuing evolution of the community.
Strong interpersonal bonds create an even stronger community. To help community members, our culture’s leaders, to engage within social networks and online communication without inadvertently causing any undue harm to Apogaea, Inc., the Burning Man Project or your fellow Burners, we’ve crafted a set of basic guidelines for social media and outlined a public social media policy. We intend these guidelines and policy to foster accurate communication and strengthen relationships through transparency of expectations.
General Social Media Policy
Apogaea, Inc. has a responsibility to maintain this space for the benefit of all visitors. The posts and comments made on our social media sites will have the power to add to or detract from Apogaea’s overall message. It is our responsibility to create online communication that enhances the experience of participants and visitors.
Post & Comment Guidelines
General
- In general any posts that are obvious spam or commercial events will be deleted and the poster will be warned. (Theme camp fundraisers and Burner-ish free parties are not spam and will not be deleted.)
- Our moderators will remove posts and comments they believe are counter to civil discourse.
- Moderators may remove the following categories of comments and/or posts at their discretion:
- Personal attacks or rumors (posts and/or comments) that are detrimental or disruptive to Apogaea and/or its volunteers, participants, or the community
- Controversial statements related to the organization, its participants or the community
- Off topic or unrelated to the organization’s or community’s activities
- Spam (posts containing more than one URL or unrelated URL are considered spam)
- Inaccurate information (this information may also be corrected in comments or additional posts from official sources such as Arthur Flame/Flaming Art)
- Unnecessarily inflammatory language or posts attacking a point of view
- Abusive language targeted to any groups (ethnic, racial, religious, class-related, ect.)
- Content that knowingly violates the copyright, trademark or trade secret of any individual or entity
- Repeat offenders or known trolls (Moderators may choose to permanently ban the IP addresses of these individuals from the forum.)
- If questions arise about a moderator’s decision on social media guidelines or policy enforcement, contact the Communications Team by emailing [email protected] and [email protected]. If you would like to further discussion the decision or have policy-related questions, contact the Board of Directors by emailing [email protected].
“Turning Off” Comments
- Moderators may choose, at times, to turn off the comments feature on a specific post due to a variety of factors including subject matter, web traffic patterns and timing. Feel free to trackback and post your thoughts if comments on that entry are “turned on” at a later time.
- Although moderators have discretion to turn off comments at any time, they will try to avoid doing so mid-conversation and will avoid doing so if possible.
- Moderators, Telemetry and IT may determine a standard operating procedure and timeframe for “turning off” comments on older posts to focus moderator efforts on contemporary conversations.
Appeal/Reposting
- All edits, post removals and user actions are at the sole discretion of our moderators and are subject to appeal only if you can establish to their satisfaction that the decision should be reversed. Otherwise, post-removal decisions are final.
- Board members are not forum moderators. Moderators are members of Ignition. Moderators will inform the Board of any policy-related issues arising out of social media communication and may consult with Board members regarding edits, post removals and user actions. Community members may discuss social media issues or appeals with the Apogaea Board of Directors. Board members will consult with moderators regarding such discussions.
- If your post or comment has been edited, removed or comments “turned off”, you may repost the same information or opinion if you have remedied the issue leading to the moderator’s decision. Whether you have satisfactorily remedied the issue is up to the sole discretion of the moderator.
“Why can’t I express myself all over Apogaea’s social media?/What about Free Speech???”
Apogaea supports radical self-expression. As the Burning Man Project’s social media comment policy states, “We firmly believe you have the right to host what you want on your own website (so long, of course, as it doesn’t violate anyone else’s legal rights) – and we have that right too. Thus, if one of the things we don’t want on our site is your comment, we reserve the right to simply remove it. Our aim is to be as hands-off as possible and let you enjoy a spirited dialogue, but we retain the right and responsibility to maintain this space in the manner consistent with the atmosphere we hope to create for visitors.” Your posts and comments will not be censored just because we disagree with your opinion.
Updates to Social Media Guidelines & Policy
This is a living document that may be updated at any time. The Board of Directors will approve by vote these guidelines and policy and any subsequent updates to their terms. We welcome your help in upholding these policies.
General Post & Comment Guidelines (for posting to social media sites)
- In general any posts that are obvious spam or commercial events will be deleted and the poster will be warned. (Things such as theme camp fundraisers and Burner-ish free parties will not be deleted.)
- Our moderators will remove posts and comments they believe are counter to civil discourse.
- Personal attacks and rumors (posts and/or comments) that are detrimental to Apogaea and/or its volunteers, participants, or the community will be deleted.
- We reserve the right to stop and or delete comments on a thread that are controversial and/or go severely off topic.
- See Apogaea.com for complete Social Media Guidelines and Policy.