Misconduct Reporting Form

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Aaron's Rod
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Misconduct Reporting Form

Post by Aaron's Rod »

I have received a lot of questions about what exactly the joint quizbowl organizations have been working on. Although we are not entirely ready to roll out the project itself, it seems that quizbowlers are understandably anxious to know what the project will be.

On behalf of a joint effort among PACE, NAQT, and ACF, I am pleased to announce the first steps of initiative that we hope will make our events–as well as the community at large–safer for our staffers and players. We hope to soon a release a Google Form for reporting concerns about fellow players, coaches, and staffers, especially those staffers we might invite to our national tournaments. Our efforts to release the form and accept submissions are currently being delayed because we're having a lawyer look at it next week--and that's a good thing. We want to get this done right and we want it to be done legally.

The form will most likely require a Gmail sign-in because it optionally asks for additional documentation, which requires Google Drive access. All responses to this form will remain anonymous, other than to the people listed below for their tenure in those positions. Future quizbowl organization board members responsible for logistics and staffing may also be able to see the reports, but those leaving their positions will lose access to new complaints. Each individual organization may choose to act on reports differently, but the goal is that unacceptable behavior is not allowed to slip through the cracks because of a lack of communication. EDIT: In its current state, the forum would optionally allow the respondent to give us permission to release to release an anonymized version of their report to an institution of their choosing, i.e., a college club or a state organization.

Please note that filling out this form will never be a substitute for informing legal authorities, and if you are in immediate danger you should call 911. (However, if you are under 18, we may be required to report incidents of abuse to a government agency.) The Crisis Call Center Hotline for any crisis is 800-273-8255, and you can use the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741 in the US. The National Sexual Assault Hotline is 800-656-4673 (HOPE), and online chat resources are available at https://hotline.rainn.org/online/. You do not have to deal with pain alone.

These are definitely confusing times, and I hope I've shed some light on this project which has been in the works in some form since February. We hope that we are able to make positive changes in the community. If you have any questions, please contact me or anyone listed below.

[Last edited 01/09/2020 with current representative information.]

Rob Carson
Member, ACF
[email protected]

Alex Damisch
Mirror Coordinator, ACF
[email protected]

Brad Fischer
IAC
[email protected]

Joel Gluskin
Vice President of Logistics, NAQT
[email protected]

Niki Peters
NHBB
[email protected]

Emily J. Pike
Member, NAQT
[email protected]

Ryan Rosenberg
Member, PACE
[email protected]

Bernadette Spencer
Vice President of Event Management, PACE
[email protected]
Last edited by Aaron's Rod on Fri May 25, 2018 11:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Alex D.
ACF
http://tinyurl.com/qbmisconduct

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Re: Misconduct Reporting Form

Post by Rabbinator »

This is wonderful to see, and I'm very thankful you chose to release some of this info for those of us who were anxious for it. I do have one question. While this lineup of folks is fantastic and trustworthy, what would be an appropriate way in the future if one needed to report misconduct ABOUT someone who has access to these forms? I think it's important that we include that, especially since this lineup may change at some point.

Please note to readers: I am not insinuating that anyone listed needs to be reported for misconduct. It's simply a what if situation so we are all protected in the future.
Bunnie Hadsall
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Re: Misconduct Reporting Form

Post by Aaron's Rod »

Rabbinator wrote:This is wonderful to see, and I'm very thankful you chose to release some of this info for those of us who were anxious for it. I do have one question. While this lineup of folks is fantastic and trustworthy, what would be an appropriate way in the future if one needed to report misconduct ABOUT someone who has access to these forms? I think it's important that we include that, especially since this lineup may change at some point.

Please note to readers: I am not insinuating that anyone listed needs to be reported for misconduct. It's simply a what if situation so we are all protected in the future.
That's a great question, Bunnie, and I'm glad you're asking the difficult questions--it's definitely better to be prepared.

Let me highlight something in my previous post to help answer your question:
I wrote:Future quizbowl organization board members responsible for logistics and staffing may also be able to see the reports, but those leaving their positions will lose access to new complaints.
You may have noticed that all of the organizations have multiple representatives, and at least one of the representatives from PACE, NAQT, and ACF is involved with operations/logistics/staffing. (ACF is currently not structured in a way that lends itself to logistics/staffing officers, although that may change soon.)

While representing PACE, I set some internal ground rules with NAQT as to how people would access misconduct report information, and for how long, and how they lose access to information if they leave a position. It's not too tricky: the remaining officer from that organization acquires a successor from their organization (or could ask officers from their organization to volunteer), they notify the other representatives, and they change the email password to something the departing officer doesn't now. ACF and NHBB were brought on only after agreeing to those rules.

If a complaint about one of us is received, it is likely that we would follow the same procedure as we would if someone left their organization or simply did not want to have access to misconduct complaints anymore. We would follow the procedure I just described, and we would review the complaint.

As I mentioned before, the representatives from each organization may act differently about how to deal with people named in the complaints.

PERSONAL SPECULATION NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENTATIVE OF THE 4 GROUPS: I can't yet know how people are going to use this form––I hope it will be completely in good faith! But I can imagine the only situation in which someone might be allowed to return as a representative is if the other representatives from all 4 organizations (not including the accused, of course) were given very, very good reason to think that the form was filled out by a troll [EDIT: or possibly if the respondent explicitly stated that they did not want the accused to be removed from the group of representatives]. But hopefully both unserious complaints and complaints about our representatives will be few to none!

EDIT: I should also add that as before, people are of course welcome to email the organizations individually with their complaints, and can direct them to those people listed in my original post. But the consolidation and safekeeping of private information is really what we're going for here.
Alex D.
ACF
http://tinyurl.com/qbmisconduct

"You operate at a shorter wavelength and higher frequency than most human beings." —Victor Prieto
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Re: Misconduct Reporting Form

Post by Stained Diviner »

A big thanks to Alex and the other people she lists for getting us to this point.

Let me also add in response to Bunnie's point that the form will not be the only way for people to report problems. If people want to report problems but feel uncomfortable using the form for whatever reason, they can report problems the same way they have in the past, which usually means in person or by email.

We believe that this form will be a step forward in giving people participating in tournaments an appropriate way to describe bad situations and in giving people running tournaments more information in an appropriate way. Bunnie's hypothetical is one of many reasons to believe that the creation of this form should be thought of as a step in the right direction rather than a complete solution.
David Reinstein
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Re: Misconduct Reporting Form

Post by CometsCoach »

I'm grateful that all of the various organizations have decided that this is a good idea, because it certainly is. I'm grateful that NAQT has gotten behind this as well; however, in their statement released today on their social media platforms, there is one lingering question they have yet to answer.

That question is: what are NAQT (and for that matter, all quiz bowl organizations) doing to ensure that the people they bring aboard to staff their events are properly vetted to work with students?

This is a question that cannot linger much further.
Jay Winter
Iowa Quiz Bowl League Founder & CEO
VP for Outreach, PACE
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Re: Misconduct Reporting Form

Post by Stained Diviner »

PACE is open to suggestions on this front. One of the reasons we started this form is that we believe that word of mouth is the most efficient way to address this situation, and we want to make it as easy as possible for word of mouth to reach us and other quizbowl organizations that are expecting teams to stay in hotels that are full of other teams and tournament staff.

We don't consider this to be a solved problem, and unfortunately it probably should never be considered a solved problem. PACE and other organizations cannot give a 100% guarantee that nothing bad will happen. That being said, anybody who has ideas on how to handle this better is encouraged to contact us by whatever means you find most appropriate--public or private.
David Reinstein
Head Writer and Editor for Scobol Solo, Masonics, and IESA; TD for Scobol Solo and Reinstein Varsity; IHSSBCA Board Member; IHSSBCA Chair (2004-2014); PACE President (2016-2018)
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Re: Misconduct Reporting Form

Post by matthewspatrick »

CometsCoach wrote:That question is: what are NAQT (and for that matter, all quiz bowl organizations) doing to ensure that the people they bring aboard to staff their events are properly vetted to work with students?
Out of curiosity, what is the IQBL doing?
Patrick Matthews
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I do not speak for NAQT in any way, shape, or form.
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Re: Misconduct Reporting Form

Post by CometsCoach »

matthewspatrick wrote:
CometsCoach wrote:That question is: what are NAQT (and for that matter, all quiz bowl organizations) doing to ensure that the people they bring aboard to staff their events are properly vetted to work with students?
Out of curiosity, what is the IQBL doing?

IQBL is in the process of drafting and instituting a policy indicating that any moderator paid by or volunteering for IQBL must either be an employee of a school district, approved as a volunteer by a school district, or pass at least a criminal/sex offenders registry background check once every five (5) years. Certified teachers in Iowa undergo background checks every five years. I hope to have this policy approved in September. The cost of the background checks will be deducted from a moderator's stipend.
Jay Winter
Iowa Quiz Bowl League Founder & CEO
VP for Outreach, PACE
Mathematics Teacher & Quiz Bowl Head Coach, Waukee Northwest High School (IA)
Co-Owner of Quiz Bowl Systems/Slammer Systems
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Re: Misconduct Reporting Form

Post by Aaron's Rod »

The misconduct form has a small personnel changes due to PACE's 2018-2019 elections--Sarah Angelo has replaced David Reinstein as one of PACE's representatives. (I also am no longer representing PACE on the form, but I'm staying on through ACF.) David was instrumental in getting all of this done, and I'm really grateful for his hard and thoughtful work.
Alex D.
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http://tinyurl.com/qbmisconduct

"You operate at a shorter wavelength and higher frequency than most human beings." —Victor Prieto
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Re: Misconduct Reporting Form

Post by Aaron's Rod »

I am very pleased to announce that IAC, the umbrella organization that includes NHBB, is joining PACE, NAQT, and ACF on the misconduct reporting form task force. We are very excited to work with our colleagues Jason Russell (Director, IAC US Middle School/Elementary Division) and Niki Peters (Regional Coordinator, NHBB). Their contact information is on the form.
Alex D.
ACF
http://tinyurl.com/qbmisconduct

"You operate at a shorter wavelength and higher frequency than most human beings." —Victor Prieto
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Re: Misconduct Reporting Form

Post by Aaron's Rod »

We've added an additional, required question to the end of the misconduct form:
When responding to complaints, we want to make sure that both parties have an opportunity to express their understanding of events. One of the organizations may contact the person in question to notify them that a complaint has been made about them. Do you reasonably believe that contacting this person would do you harm?
We've also had some personnel changes on the misconduct form. Sam Angelo Luongo has stepped down as a PACE representative. We appreciate Sam's service! Yesterday we updated our accounts and welcomed Ryan Rosenberg as a PACE representative to the misconduct form. (Bernadette Spencer is also continuing from last year as a PACE representative.)

If anyone has any questions about these changes, we'd be happy to respond to them here or elsewhere.
Alex D.
ACF
http://tinyurl.com/qbmisconduct

"You operate at a shorter wavelength and higher frequency than most human beings." —Victor Prieto
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Re: Misconduct Reporting Form

Post by Aaron's Rod »

Jason Russell has stepped aside as an IAC representative to the misconduct form. We thank him for his time and effort. Today I updated the [email protected] address to change access to the form. We look forward to working with Brad Fischer as an IAC representative to the misconduct form.
Alex D.
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http://tinyurl.com/qbmisconduct

"You operate at a shorter wavelength and higher frequency than most human beings." —Victor Prieto
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Re: Misconduct Reporting Form

Post by Aaron's Rod »

After three years (almost to the day!), I have resigned as a Misconduct Form representative for ACF. The extremely capable Olivia Murton will be taking my spot. Thank you all for your collective trust, it meant and means a lot to me.
Alex D.
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http://tinyurl.com/qbmisconduct

"You operate at a shorter wavelength and higher frequency than most human beings." —Victor Prieto
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Re: Misconduct Reporting Form

Post by ryanrosenberg »

Kevin Wang has been added to the Misconduct Reporting Form in his role as admin of the Quizbowl Discord. The Discord has grown rapidly and is now a hub of online quizbowl social communication; we as a group want to ensure that people feel safe and confident in the form to handle instances of misconduct that occur online.
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Re: Misconduct Reporting Form

Post by ryanrosenberg »

IAC's membership on the form committee has lapsed. The active form representatives still plan to work with IAC and alert them of relevant reports, as with other quizbowl organizations that are not part of the form committee.
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Re: Misconduct Reporting Form

Post by reindeer »

I have resigned as a misconduct form representative from ACF and will be replaced by the extremely qualified Caroline Mao. All the best to Caroline and the form!
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Re: Misconduct Reporting Form

Post by ryanrosenberg »

Bernadette Spencer and I have resigned as PACE representatives to the misconduct reporting form and have been replaced by Mia McGill and Sadie Britton.
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Re: Misconduct Reporting Form

Post by Krik? Krik?! KRIIIIK!!! »

Matt Bollinger resigned from his position as ACF's representative on the Misconduct Committee in August 2022. I, Ganon Evans, was elected to be the new representative by a vote from the officers and have been serving on the committee since August 2022. I apologize for the delay in this announcement.
Ganon Evans
Misconduct Representative
ACF President, PACE VP of Editing, MOQBA
Francis Howell High School 2018, University of Iowa 2021
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