EZF Community Care Expectations

 

Why does this exist?

We want Edinburgh Zine Festival 2022 to be a welcoming, supportive, and inclusive event. We want to create a space that recognises and challenges the oppression and exploitation that some members of our community are harmed by, and some members of our community benefit from, and which strives to be free from oppressive attitudes, actions, behaviours and language.

Rather than a fixed set of ‘dos and don’ts’ this document hopes to be a discussion of what to expect and what we expect from each other, as well as clearly outlining what will happen if anyone falls short of those expectations. We would like to stress that we are working with our own capacities as organisers, and so this document is not doing community care ‘right’ but reflects what we practically feel we will be able to do during the event.

This document is open to amendments, revisions, questions and changes, please contact edinburghzinelibrary@gmail.com to suggest any or contribute.

What does this document address?

This document applies to all aspects of the Edinburgh Zine Festival 2022.

Crucially, we have a zero-tolerance policy toward harassment.

Harassment includes, but is not limited to:

• racism, sexism, classism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, fatphobia, and all other forms of discrimination

• sexual harassment, stalking, or intimidation

• action or language that makes other participants feel unwelcome or unsafe

• disrespectful or disruptive behaviour

If it is identified, it will be dealt with through the actions described below.

Who is responsible for this?

Everyone involved in Edinburgh Zine Festival is jointly responsible for making sure it is a welcoming, supportive and inclusive space. We are all responsible for upholding the expectations, this includes self-reflection and awareness, a commitment to learning and a willingness to be responsible and accountable.

Examples of ways community members can uphold these expectations include:

  • We can practice empathy towards other people.

  • We can avoid assuming the gender/pronouns of people we meet.

  • We can be thoughtful about our words and language use, considering what has influenced them and who do they exclude? This does not mean policing the language of others or excluding those who don’t use the ‘right’ words.

  • We can respect the boundaries of others – both respecting stated boundaries, and not assuming other people’s boundaries are the same as ours.

  • We can be thoughtful about the range of experiences in the room, including experiences of trauma or violence. We might consider offering trigger warnings for zines that deal with these topics.

  • We can identify behaviour, language, attitudes and actions that don’t meet the standards we ask of everyone involved and communicate this to the organisers.

  • We can be mindful of the ways that enacting community care might look different when done by different people, and avoid assuming neurotypical norms of behaviour.

What do I do if...?

If you have any concerns about the Edinburgh Zine Festival or these expectations, you can contact Lea at edinburghzinelibrary@gmail.com. If you don’t feel able to do this, you can nominate someone to do it for you.

If an issue arises during the Edinburgh Zine Festival, please approach a member of the EZF team (wearing branded t-shirts) who will identify and locate the named person responsible for Community Care at the zine fest at that time.

If you do not feel able to voice your concern during the event, you can ask someone else to speak to an EZF team member for you, or you can email edinburghzinelibrary@gmail.com

How will we respond to people not meeting these expectations?

Mediation and Calling In 

We would like to be able to address and resolve things within the fest. If you have acted or spoken harmfully, even if unintentionally, this will be brought up with you in a non-judgemental way. If something is brought up with you, please listen and reflect. 

Removal 

If the EZF team feel you are behaving in a way out of line with these expectations and that this is doing or perpetuating harm or making the space unsafe for other attendees or tablers, or if we feel that the situation is beyond our capacity as organisers to safely resolve in the moment, you may be removed from the zine fest.

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge that much of this document was drawn from writing a similar Community Care Expectations for the International Zine Librarians UnConference 2021 and that this itself drew from the safer spaces, braver spaces and code of conducts written by the NYC archives, ZLuC 2018, Olympia Zine Fest, Sisters Uncut, Contributor Covenant, Edinburgh Zine Library, Edinburgh Anarchist Feminist Bookfair and the Barnard Archives.