• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About
  • Comment Policy
  • Nav Widget Area

    • Instagram
    • RSS
    • Twitter

Pretty Terrible

Pop Culture Criticism by Natalie Luhrs

You are here: Home / Opinion / World Fantasy 2015: Harassment Policy Update

October 28, 2015

World Fantasy 2015: Harassment Policy Update

So this happened this morning:

screenshot-www.facebook.com 2015-10-28 21-33-06

This change in policy has not been sent out to the membership and I have not yet received a response to my email, not even to acknowledge receipt (I will be following up on that later this evening).

I have concerns. They will be using the policy from last year’s convention in addition to the one they developed with the legal advice of the Sarasota Springs authorities.

What does this mean? Will they still be calling the police if someone were to report harassment? There are a lot of behaviors that don’t rise to criminal offenses but which are violations nonetheless and should be dealt with. I really would like to know how they’re going to make this work.

I’m not sure why all these people are lauding the convention in comments, because this doesn’t fix anything. The adoption of last year’s policy on top of the piss-poor garbage policy they developed complicates reporting behavioral issues and they still haven’t notified their paying members of this policy change.

I recognize that the convention committee is probably stretched extremely thin at this point and doesn’t have a lot of extra bandwidth but–to be blunt–they got themselves into this position by posting a garbage policy to begin with when they literally had years to develop one. Years.

I continue to be extremely bothered by the lack of communication from the convention committee to the membership and the fact that I still cannot find anyone’s name on the website–I only know that Mr. Berlant is the chair of the convention because someone told me that he was via email.

This is just ridiculous and it’s no way to run a convention.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Opinion Natalie Luhrs

About Natalie Luhrs

I'm a lifelong geek with a passion for books and social justice.

Reader Interactions

World Fantasy’s Harassment Non-Policy
Links: 10/30/15

Comments

  1. Selki says

    October 29, 2015 at 6:04 pm

    Facepalm-inducing update from this morning:
    https://www.facebook.com/groups/196747267179090/permalink/431877546999393/

    Reiteration of police / “legal” advice to call police to report any incident and incorrect reiteration that no one on concomm / volunteer staff is trained to recognise differences between (in)civil and criminal harassment (at least one staff/volunteer member was trained via Arisia). Statement further down that reporting harassment to constaff may result in reporting to police. The decision to pass it on to the police is in the hands of the person taking the report (or higher up in con staff), not the person making the report. No acknowledgement of how chilling this makes it for anyone to bring any concerns about harassment to attention of con staff/volunteers.

Trackbacks

  1. The World Fantasy That Was — Pretty Terrible says:
    November 10, 2015 at 8:26 pm

    […] as for the harassment policy? Completely non-existent at the convention.  Wasn’t in the program book, wasn’t posted […]

Primary Sidebar

Welcome

a purple haired woman with glasses smiles at the camera

Hello! I’m Natalie Luhrs. I write about books, culture, my health, and whatever else strikes my fancy. I have many opinions.

I am a two-time Hugo Award finalist, in 2017 for Best Fan Writer and in 2021 for my essay “George R.R. Martin Can Fuck Off Into the Sun, Or: The 2020 Hugo Awards Ceremony (Rageblog Edition)” in the Best Related Work category.

Search

Upcoming Conventions

Readercon - July 9 to 11, 2021 (virtual)

DisCon III, the 79th World Science Fiction Convention - August 25 to 29, 2021

Support Pretty Terrible

Updates by Email

Blog posts, cat pictures, and other random things in email? Sign up here.
 

 

2021 Reading Challenge

2021 Reading Challenge

2021 Reading Challenge
Natalie has read 6 books toward their goal of 50 books.
hide
6 of 50 (12%)
view books

Recently Read

The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows
The Relentless Moon
A Wizard's Guide To Defensive Baking
Mischief
Architects of Memory
The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water
Unconquerable Sun
Bury Your Dead
The Brutal Telling
A Rule Against Murder
The Cruelest Month
A Fatal Grace
The Angel of the Crows
One Summer in Paris
Still Life
The Crossroads of Should and Must: Find and Follow Your Passion
Family for Beginners
The City We Became
Seven Sisters
The Harbors of the Sun


Natalie's favorite books »

Footer

Helpful Links

  • Home
  • About
  • Comment Policy
  • RSS - Posts

Archives

Looking for Something?

Recent Posts

  • 2021 Best Related Work Finalist!
  • What Comes Next
  • Recent Reading, January 2021
  • Could I possibly catch a break now?
  • Some Positive News, For Once

Copyright © 2021 Natalie Luhrs · Pretty Happy On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in
"It's chaos, be kind." Michelle McNamara

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.