Freeside Technology Spaces does not and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status, in any of its activities or operations. These activities include, but are not limited to, hiring and firing of staff, selection of volunteers and vendors, and provision of services. We are committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all members of our staff, clients, volunteers, subcontractors, vendors, and clients.
Freeside Technology Spaces (Freeside) is dedicated to providing a harassment-free hackerspace experience for everyone. We do not tolerate harassment of members, guests, or visitors in any form. Sexual language and sexually explicit imagery is not appropriate for any Freeside space, including Freeside-related events. Members, guests, and visitors violating these rules may be expelled from the space or event at the discretion of the Officers and Directors.
Harassment covers a wide range of behaviours of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behaviour intended to disturb or upset, and it is characteristically repetitive. In the legal sense, it is intentional behaviour which is found threatening or disturbing. Harassment includes offensive verbal comments related to gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, religion, sexually explicit images in public spaces, deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention.
Members, guests, and visitors asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately.
If a member engages in harassing behavior, Freeside Officers and Directors may take any action they deem appropriate, including but not limited to: censure, expulsion from the space, and/or termination of membership.
In an emergency, please call 911. If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact an Officer or Director immediately. You can reach us at either:
- Officers email: [email protected]
- Directors email: [email protected]
Freeside will be happy to help participants contact local law enforcement, provide escorts, call taxis, or otherwise assist those experiencing harassment to feel safe at our space and events. We value our visitors and members.
- In an emergency, please call 911. We are in the City of Atlanta jurisdiction.
- Dekalb Rape Crisis Center, 204 Church Street, Decatur, GA 30030, Crisis Hotline: 404-377-1428
We expect members, guests, and visitors to follow these rules at all Freeside event venues and Freeside-related social events.
This anti-harassment policy is based on the example policy from the Geek Feminism wiki, created by the Ada Initiative and other volunteers.
- No Tor exit nodes: Tor Project: Overview
- No unattended cryptocurrency miners: Determining Electrical Cost of Bitcoin Mining
- Respect copyright law: US Copyright Law
- Members cannot share credentials to members-only resources.
Freeside Technology Spaces is an equal opportunity employer. We will not discriminate and will take affirmative action measures to ensure against discrimination in employment, recruitment, advertisements for employment, compensation, termination, upgrading, promotions, and other conditions of employment against any employee or job applicant on the basis of race, color, gender, national origin, age, religion, creed, disability, veteran’s status, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.
In order to act as a cohesive organization, Freeside Officers, Directors and members will document, collaborate, and communicate decisions and actions taken that affect other members, or the organization as a whole.
No Officer or Director will take any actions representing Freeside outside of their normal assigned duties without notifying the Board and Officers in a timely manner. Unless in response to an emergency situation that requires immediate action (examples: active hacking, vandalism, matter of member or guest safety) the Officer or Director should attempt to contact and collaborate with another Officer or Director on the proper course prior to taking any action.
No member shall conduct business as Freeside in an official capacity without prior and specific permission of the Board. The Secretary will document the scope of any such permission granted.
Members that violate Freeside policies, rules, or the code of conduct may be subject to disciplinary action by Officers and/or the Board of Directors, which may affect their membership status, rights, and privileges.
A Freeside policy may be written to include specific outcomes to violations of that policy. For example, the Past Due Membership Process outlines how membership rights and privileges are revoked over time for non-payment of membership dues, as well as ways to restore those rights and privileges. Another example is how the Drug and Alcohol Policy calls for the expulsion and termination of members that serve alcohol to minors.
In general, this policy seeks to assign responsibilities for disciplinary action against members, as well as describe the burden of proof and the process by which membership status transitions and how member rights, privileges are revoked and restored.
- Censure - an official statement by the Freeside leadership that informs a member that they are in violation of policies, rules, or the code of conduct.
- Good Standing - a state of membership, in which a member meets the obligations of membership. These obligations are defined by the Freeside by-laws.
- Probation - a state of membership where the member has some or all member rights and privileges revoked as defined by censure on record.
- Termination - the act of removing an individual from Freeside membership, by Freeside leadership, voluntary resignation, or as defined in specific policies.
It is the responsibility of the Officers to censure individual members for violating policy, rules, or the code of conduct. Officers are responsible for reporting each censure at the following Board of Directors meeting. Officers are responsible for keeping a record of each censure.
It is the responsibility of the Board of Directors to place a member into probationary status, either automatically by the terms and conditions of approved policy, or via decision by majority vote. In the case of automatic placement, it is the responsibility of the Officers to properly record the violation(s), and to report the event to the Board of Directors.
It is the responsibility of the Board of Directors to terminate a member, either automatically by the terms and conditions of approved policy, or via decision by majority vote. It is the responsibility of the Board of Directors to record the violation(s).
It is the responsibility of the Officers to carry out the terms of approved policy, to revoke the member’s privileges as applicable.
It is the responsibility and discretion of the Treasurer to reconcile or pursue outstanding balances for members that elect to terminate.
Censure is at the discretion of each Officer. A statement of censure, by definition, must specify cause and state the specific violation of policy, rules, or code of conduct.
A member may be put into probationary status automatically, by the terms and conditions of approved policy. The violation(s) are recorded and reported to the Board of Directors.
There are situations that can occur that merit placing a member into probationary status, but for which there is no current policy that covers the violation(s), or for which it is impossible to write and approve a policy that covers the situation. In these cases, the Board of Directors must record the violations and take a majority vote to place a member into probation.
The same burden of proof applies to the termination of a member. The only difference is that the Board of Directors record the violation(s) that led to the member termination.
A history of censure is sufficient in whole or in part as burden of proof for placing a member in probation or terminating a membership.
A member may appeal any censure to the Board of Directors. A censure may be expunged by majority vote of the Board of Directors.
A member may appeal probationary status to the Board of Directors. A member can be removed from probation by majority vote of the Board of Directors.
There is no appeal for termination. A member must reapply for membership.
A member may terminate their Freeside membership at any time, by notifying an Officer, in writing (the resignation).
The member has until the end of the month in which they resign to clear out their property from the space. After the end of the month, any remaining property is forfeit to Freeside.
A member has repeatedly taken materials and parts out of Freeside for personal projects, without really returning anything back to the space. Officers dealt with the situation by verbal warnings first, but then the problem continued, so Officers started to censure the member. After report(s) to the Board of Directors, the Board votes to revoke the member’s access to member storage, and revoke member access to IT infrastructure (Linux accounts). The Treasurer as Officer and acting head of IT revokes access to the services (or the Treasurer may instruct one of the IT staff to do this) . The member still has voting rights, and 24/7 access to other areas of the space - and the probationary period is set to one month. The behavior stops and the member’s full access is restored the following month (as defined by censure). The Treasurer directs the IT staff to restore access to Freeside services, per the Board’s instructions.