We Are All Responsible

Today we all received an email from PASS's president Tom LaRock (blog/@SQLRockstar):

PASS Anti-Harassment Policy Reminder It is unfortunate that I have to write this letter, but it has become necessary. An Anti-Harassment Policy (AHP) was implemented in 2012 to help provide a harassment-free conference experience. Everyone attending PASS Summit is expected to follow the AHP at all times, including at PASS-sponsored social events. This includes, but is not limited to, PASS staff, exhibitors, speakers, attendees, and anyone affiliated with the event. This year at PASS Summit I served on the Anti-Harassment Review Committee. As such, it was my responsibility to help review complaints and incidents reported during Summit. The PASS Summit experience should be enjoyable, exciting, and safe for everyone at all times. However, I am disappointed to say that PASS Summit was a negative experience for a few members of our #SQLFamily this year. I expect Summit attendees and PASS members to treat others with respect at all times, whether that is inside a session room, the conference hallway, a PASS sponsored event, or even at a local coffee shop. On a positive note, there were people actively using the policy this year and supporting one another onsite as well. I am proud to see that our community has embraced having this policy. It is wonderful to know that our #SQLFamily will not put up with these types of incidents. If you have concerns or want to report an incident within the guidelines of the AHP, I encourage you to contact governance@sqlpass.org. Thomas LaRock PASS President --

It is sad to me that we still live in a world where it is necessary to remind people of things like this.  I am not deluded that events like those in this post by Wendy Pastrick (blog/@wendy_dance) will never happen, but it is still disappointing every time I hear about one.

No one - regardless of gender/ethnicity/anything else - should have to suffer from an uncomfortable environment or even worse outright physical or mental abuse, especially in a professional setting.  When something like this does happen it is on all of us to speak up to try to end the situation and to prevent it from recurring.

I commit to personally working harder at this - when we see something unacceptable happen, Speak Up!

At the end of the day, we are all responsible for ourselves *and* for each other in our #sqlfamily.

As always, my $.02

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Also - read Erin Stellato's (blog/@erinstellato) excellent post here giving *her* $.02.