What is this Document?

This document, in conjunction with the Code of Conduct, further defines but does not limit, the actions and behaviours that Scotiacon (Which may be referred to as “We” from this point onwards) deem to pose a risk to the running of the convention, the operations of the venue, and the wellbeing of staff, attendees and the public at large.

Preamble

In order to maintain a fun and inclusive experience, Scotiacon reserves the right to sanction individuals who engage in such actions and/or behaviours as detailed in this policy in line with the seriousness of the breaches. Scotiacon will not accept any claims of losses, financial or of any other kind, as a result of any sanctions that have to be imposed on any individual.

Unacceptable Behaviour

Scotiacon reserves the right to determine what we deem are unacceptable behaviours.

However as per the code of conduct we reserve the right to take appropriate action should any attendee:

• Undertake any action or behaviour that interferes with convention operations.
• Engage in criminal behaviour at any time and/or be assessed to be a risk to children or vulnerable adults.
• Undertake any action or express any views that are likely to cause excessive discomfort and/or offence to other attendees, staff members, or members of the public.
• Engage in any action that may adversely affect Scotiacon’s relationship with its attendees, its staff or the public in general.
• Undertake any action where they falsely represent themselves as a representative of Scotiacon to others.
• Undertake any actions which may adversely affect Scotiacon’s relationships with its venue, suppliers or cause financial damage to Scotiacon.
• Be found to be causing discomfort to others through unwanted physical contact, conversation or messaging via any messaging app.
• Cause any damage to the property of others, through any action regardless of intent.
• Display or allow to be displayed any sign, logo or other media form an image or text that is prohibited by law, likely to cause offence or bring the convention into disrepute.

In addition we also reserve the right to amend our Code of Conduct at any time in order to ensure that our policies are up to date and fit for purpose.

In addition to these we may classify individuals as posing an ‘unacceptable risk’ prior to the event if sufficient verifiable evidence is brought to our attention that shows that they have or are more than likely to infringe upon our statement of intent as laid out in the preamble of the Code of Conduct.

We also reserve the right to sanction individuals at the request of the hotel/venue and make the hotel/venue aware of any sanctions that we have had to undertake during the course of the convention, so that they may take any further actions that they deem are required.

The seriousness of the breach will be determined by an assessment of the perceived level of harm that such a breach has caused. The levels of harm are defined but not limited to the statements below as follows:

• No Harm
  • There are no identifiable consequences to the actions/behaviours that have led to the breach of the CoC
• Minor
  • There are identifiable consequences to the breach where:
    • It has or will have minimal effects on the running of the convention.
    • Any physical injury that has occurred, was unintentional and requires little/no medical intervention.
    • Any distress caused is transitory, and any words/actions used would not be classed as hate speech.
    • Any non-deliberate damage to property is damage that would not reasonably be expected as part of normal ‘wear and tear’.
    • The actions/behaviours causing the breach would not be expected to be deemed to be a criminal offence
    • It is likely to result in no, or only inconsequential, financial damage to the convention
• Moderate
  • There are identifiable consequences where:
    • There are, or will be, effects on the running of the convention that will require input from staff in order to rectify it, that would not be reasonably expected to occur during the running of the event.
    • Any accidental physical injury that has occurred, that was/will require medical intervention from off site medical practitioners.
    • Any deliberate physical injury has occurred.
    • Any insult caused is likely to be more than transitory, and/or the words/actions could be classed as hate speech.
    • Any damage to property is damage that would not be expected as a part of wear/tear, likely to result in a minor financial cost, or any deliberate damage even if it is negligible.
    • The actions/behaviours causing the breach could be deemed be a minor criminal offence
    • Intoxication that is suspected to be due to any banned and/or controlled substances.
    • Any actions that are taken in order to impersonate a member of convention, venue, contracted agency or other type of event staff
• Substantial
  • There are identifiable consequences where:
    • There are, or will be effects on the running of the convention that will require substantial rectification at the directorate level.
    • Instigation of a ‘chargeback’ to force a refund where one has not been authorised as this puts the event at risk of funding shortages.
    • Any accidental physical injury that has occurred, has resulted in injuries that could be life altering.
    • Any injury or accident has been due to or made more likely to have occurred through the use of any banned/controlled substances or with the use of a weapon.
    • Any insult caused is likely to have substantial or long term consequences.
    • Any damage to objects/physical infrastructure is damage that was done with deliberate intent, and is likely to lead to substantial financial costs to rectify, or will have a substantial impact on Scotiacon’s relationship with the venue/hotel or external suppliers/contractors.
    • Actions/Behaviours as a result of intoxication, resulting in substantial use of Convention Resources and/or resulting in escalation to statutory services (Police/Ambulance)
    • The actions/behaviours causing the breach could be deemed be a criminal offence.
• Severe
  • The consequences of the action put the convention at real risk of being unable to continue in its current form.

If it is not possible to classify the breach as above we reserve the right to classify the harm caused as ‘unclassified’ and give our reasoning for why we feel it requires to be sanctioned and an explanation for why the sanction applied was chosen.

Sanctions

Our sanctions are as follows:

• Verbal Warning
• Written Warning
• Final Warning
• Ejection
• Ban

Should circumstances require we may issue:

• Refund of Ticket
• Refusal of entry

These are defined in the following sections.

Verbal Warning

This is a verbal warning given to an individual by a member of the convention staff, where they are asked to desist in the action/behaviour. These will be for breaches of the code of conduct for actions that cause no harm, or as part of an immediate response to a minor harm event.

It will be recorded by Welfare staff that such an action has occurred for future reference.

Written Warning

This will take the form of a physical letter given to the individual at the convention, or if this is not possible or practicable, in the form of an email. These will contain an explanation of the actions/or behaviours that they have undertaken that we have deemed as unacceptable, along with an explanation that further breaches are likely to result in the sanction being upgraded.

These are appropriate for actions that cause minor harm (unless it can be reasonably concluded that the actions/behaviours were accidental or unintentional and could be rectified with a verbal warning) and/or breaches after a Verbal Warning has already been given.

Welfare staff will be required to write a report on the incident, and it be reported to the Head of Welfare.

Final Warning

This will take the same form as a written warning but will clearly state that it is a Final Warning, and that any further breaches of the Code of Conduct are likely to lead to Ejection and/or a Ban from the convention.

These will be issued for moderate harm breaches, a repeat minor harm breach, or multiple no harm breaches when a Written warning has already been given.

Ejection

This action is only available during the running of the convention.

The individual is informed by a member or the directorate or the most senior member of the welfare team on duty at that time, that the decision has been made to eject them from the convention. This action must be discussed with and approved by a director before it occurs. Should the individual have left the venue this will occur should they attempt to return to the venue.

The individual will be told that their continued presence at the event is no longer welcome, that their ticket has been voided, and they are not allowed to re-enter the convention spaces for the duration of the convention, and this will be enforced by our welfare teams along with hotel security staff. We do not accept any financial damages that are caused by ejection from the convention, and will not refund the ticket in part or in whole under any circumstances.

They will also be informed that their details will be passed to the venue and/or hotel as we will be asking their security team to deny them entry to the convention spaces, or for permission for our own welfare teams to deny them entry. The nature of the occurrence will be made known to the venue/hotel management so that they can take any further actions that they deem appropriate, which may include voiding their booking with the hotel and ejection from their hotel room.

Should there be any suspicion of criminality we are liable to contact the Police to report the actions/behaviours and will take any actions recommended by them.

They will also be given a letter and/or email that details the above, along with an explanation of why this action has had to be undertaken, before they are escorted out from the convention spaces.

An ejection will be undertaken for breach that has led to substantial harm, or when actions that have led to a final warning have continued while at the convention, or their continued presence is no longer welcomed by Scotiacon while further investigations take place into their actions.

Ban

This action can only be taken outside the duration of the Convention.

There will be a meeting of the directorate along with appropriate representatives of the welfare department, at an appropriate interval after the event, where all issued sanctions are discussed, and if any of them meet the threshold for a ban to be issued.

When an individual is issued with a ban, they are deemed as being unwelcome at future conventions and as such will be prevented from attending the event in any capacity. Should they attempt to attend despite this (for example by purchasing under a false identity) they will be ejected from the event.

Their name, and other demographic details deemed appropriate in order to aid in identification of them, will be added to the persona non grata (PNG) list, which will be used during the registration process to prevent purchase of tickets for the event.

The individual sanctioned will be given a letter and/or email that states that they have been banned from attending the convention, along with an explanation of why this action has had to be undertaken. It will also be stated within this letter that their details have been added to the PNG list, and that they will not be able to attend the event until it is decided at the yearly review meeting that their ban has expired.

Refund of Ticket

This is only to be used prior to an event when an individual has purchased a ticket for the event. This involves the cost of the ticket being refunded to the purchaser (less any administration fees that may be taken out by our payment providers). These will be issued in cases where representations were made to Scotiacon, that the individual is no longer able to uphold. An explanation will be given to the individual when this has to occur along with assurances that this does not affect their ability to purchase further tickets in the future.

We will consider issuing a Refund of Ticket as non prejudicial, as we will allow them to continue to attend the event should the issue that led to it being issued is resolved.

A refund will only be issued with the authorisation of a director. The refund will normally be made as the same used in the method of original payment. Scotiacon reserves the right to pay out in an alternative method should it be required.

We reserve the rights to determine the situations where this can occur, however some representative examples are given as below:

• The individual will be aged under 18 when they intend to attend the convention, and this is disclosed/discovered prior to the event
• The ticket was obtained via the staff/crew/volunteer route and they step down from their staff/crew/volunteer role prior to the event (unless there is prior agreement with the directorate that they may convert this to an attendee ticket, with any additional Fees as appropriate)

Refusal of Entry

We reserve the right to refuse entry should the individual be unable to provide when requested to do so at the registration desk a form of in date, government issued identification that shows a picture that is a reasonable likeness to their current self, along with, their first name, surname and date of birth which matches the ticket that was issued to them, and that they are over 18 when this occurs.

They will be prevented entry to the convention spaces, until such time as they are able to meet the above criteria.

Refunds of tickets will not be considered if there is a Refusal of Entry.

Yearly Review

Records of all sanctions above a written warning will be kept by the convention. Every year there will be a meeting that involves the directorate and senior welfare staff, along with other staff and crew as appropriate, where all sanctions from previous years are reviewed.

The conditions under which the sanction was issued will be discussed along with the reasoning as to why that sanction was chosen. If additional information has subsequently come to light regarding the individuals involved, these may also form part of the review. We will also take into account any further communications from the individual that have been sent to us after the sanction was issued and examine if there have been subsequent verifiable changes in their attitudes/behaviours since the event that would influence our decision.

The outcomes from these discussions will be one of three options:

• Sanction Expiry
• Sanction Maintenance
• Sanction Upgraded

These are defined in the following sections.

Sanction Expiry

Upon review the sanction has had its intended effects and there is no identifiable benefit in it continuing or there was an error during the process of it being issued and that another lesser sanction should have been applied.

Sanction Maintenance

Upon review there is no evidence to suggest that it was issued incorrectly, and that it is in the best interests of Scotiacon for this sanction to remain in place until the next annual review.

Sanction Upgraded

Upon review there is evidence that the actions/behaviours that were the cause for the sanction being issued caused a higher level of harm than the initial assessment, or that further actions/behaviours have been identified subsequent to its issue, that would justify further sanctioning of the individual involved.

After the review, individuals who have got an outcome of Sanction Expiry or Sanction Upgraded, will be informed of the decision using the contact information we have on file for them.

Those who have received Sanction Expiry will be informed that they will be now eligible to purchase tickets for the next event when they become available and will be treated in the same manner of every other applicant. The PNG list will be updated with their details being erased from it.