Montana Programmers Community Guidelines

Montana Programmers LLC is 501(c)(3) educational non-profit. Our mission is to provide a unifying, non-partisan learning environment for Montanans and the nearby regions of all skill levels in technology. Founded in 2008 we pride ourselves in creating a friendly environment for all tech & tech-related professionals or aspiring professionals to meet and have productive conversations around work, coding, tech business, design, and the Montana tech community.

Code of Conduct

The Montana Programmers Community is committed to maintaining a safe, welcoming, harassment-free environment for everyone. We do not tolerate harassment of community members in any form. Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately.

This code of conduct applies to anyone who participates in a space affiliated with the Montana Programmers Community, including our Slack and Meetup as well as any network activities, events, and forums — both online and off.

What we strive for

We strive to promote an open exchange of ideas balanced by thoughtful guidelines. If we have only openness, community members subject to thoughtless or intentionally hurtful behavior may withdraw or leave the community. We want to prevent that. On the other hand, overly intrusive guidelines may stifle communication or make people feel unwelcome. It’s up to every member to foster a culture that balances openness, honesty, and mutual respect.

It would be impossible to list everything you can do to help create a more welcoming space, and we know this community will find ways to include people that we’ve yet to consider. When in doubt, rely on the following principles:

• Be humble, practice empathy and humility

• Assume competence

• Listen carefully and actively

• Ask questions, and seek to understand context

• Encourage other people to listen as much as they speak

• Prioritize access for and input from those who are traditionally excluded from conversations about design, research, and technology

• We are all Montanans, regardless of time spent here. Montanans help each other out despite our differences.

Behavior we don’t accept

The following actions run counter to our community’s culture.

• Selling products or services, or event evangelism. If you want to discuss a specific product or service, please join the #product-and-services channel where you can promote or discuss products freely. For events or conferences that are not organized by community event organizers please reach out to director@montanaprogrammers.org or a Slack moderator for permission to post first. We encourage other groups to use us as a resource to help evangelize, but we will not approve strictly commercial or commercial promotional events.

• Surveying, canvassing, or offering promotions to community members. Please contact a Slack admin (see below) before soliciting broad input or offering discounts to members.

• Job postings are restricted to the #jobs-board channel for non-recruiter employees and hiring managers, and recruiters who work directly for current and past sponsors. Positions must be located in Montana or allow fully remote. Review our sponsors list and let us know if we missed anyone.

• Promoting partisan politics, political events, and any petitions. If you think there is something that is important for Montana Programmers to support, message a Slack moderator or director@montanaprogrammers.org and we will review it. Keep in mind that we are a 501c3 with an educational non-profit and non-lobby IRS designation which prohibits what type of political activity we participate in.

The following actions are considered harassment:

• Unwelcome verbal or written comment or physical conduct that is so objectively offensive that it creates a hostile environment; when it is based on: race, religion, color, sex (with or without sexual conduct and including pregnancy and sexual orientation involving transgender status/gender identity, and sex-stereotyping), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, parental status, marital status, or political affiliation.

• Negative or offensive remarks based on:

  • gender expression,

  • mental illness,

  • socioeconomic status or background,

  • neuro(a)typicality,

  • physical appearance,

  • body size,

  • or clothing.

• Touching people without their affirmative consent.

• Consistent or sustained disruption of meetings, talks, or discussions.

• Intentionally or repeatedly referring to people in a way that rejects the validity of their racial or gender identity; for instance, by using incorrect pronouns or forms of address (misgendering).

• One-on-one communication or simulated physical contact (e.g. textual descriptions like “hug” or “backrub”) after a request to stop.

• Publication of non-harassing private communication.

• Micro-aggressions: small comments or questions, either intentional or unintentional, that marginalize people by communicating hostile, derogatory, or negative beliefs. Examples include:

  • Patronizing language or behavior.

  • Pedantic corrections that don’t contribute to the conversation. For example, correcting someone who says “user testing” when that person clearly meant “usability testing.”

  • Assuming without asking that particular people or groups need concepts defined or explained to them. (It’s great to be sensitive to the fact that people may not be familiar with technical terms you use every day, but assuming that people are uninformed can come across as patronizing.)

  • Assuming that particular groups of people are technically unskilled ("So easy your grandmother could do it.")

  • Repeatedly interrupting or talking over someone else

  • Mocking someone’s real or perceived accent or first language.

• Retaliating against anyone who complains that someone has violated these guidelines.

Confidentiality

We respect the confidentiality of our community. As a general guide, observe the Chatham House Rule: “Participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed.” If you wish to attribute something in a public forum that was initially said in our Slack — if you wish to publish a chat transcript, for example — you must solicit the affirmative consent of everyone who contributed to the material being attributed.

How this works in practice

If something has happened to make you feel unsafe, unwelcome, or excluded, or if you observe behavior that appears to make others feel unsafe, unwelcome, or excluded, please contact an administrator. They will help decide the appropriate course of action to resolve the problem.

Questions:

• How do I talk about things I’m passionate about when it involves my products or services?

  • you can respond to a thread/conversation and mention your products or services as long as it is relevant. But

    • you need to disclose it’s a thing you make money on, and

    • you can’t initiate a conversation about your product or service.

Slack administrators

The Montana Programmers Slack is administered by Wes Hunt. Please contact him to report someone in our Slack for violating these guidelines.

Wes Hunt
Slack: @montechie
Email: director@montanaprogrammers.org

Community Moderators & Event Organizers

Community moderators and event organizers help organize and run events affiliated with the Montana Programmers community. Community moderators and event organizers reserve the right to ask anyone in violation of these guidelines not to participate in Montana Programmers network activities, events, and digital forums. In some cases we will actively ban offenders. The list of Montana Programmers community moderators and Event organizers is maintained on our website.

Credits

We are greatly appreciative of the multiple sources that we drew from to build these guidelines, especially the ResearchOps Community and Code for America