Charmed! Report Handling Procedure

Terms
A report is a communication from an individual to Charmed! regarding an interaction that violates, or may violate, Charmed! event policies.

The concom (convention committee) is an abbreviated name for the Charmed! board.

The consent team is a separate entity from the concom charged with ensuring that everyone involved in a consent-related incident is heard, understood, and supported. The consent team does not make decisions about what actions should be taken after an incident.

A conflict of interest occurs when someone who would normally handle a report is faced with a report involving themselves or someone with whom they have close personal ties. In this case the person is said to be in conflict and cannot be involved in the handling of that report.

How To Submit a Report
Charmed! accept reports of:

1. Injury
2. Assault
3. Breaches of event policy by anyone (including presenters, staff, and concom) at our event
4. Consent violations by anyone (including presenters, staff, and concom) at any event

Anyone may submit a report to Charmed! involving these possible violations of Charmed! event policies. The best method of doing so depends on the timing and nature of the report.

During the event

If an incident happens during the event, the best way to report is in person.

For consent-related reports, you can approach a member of the consent team directly and ask for assistance; they are recognizable by their gold-colored event badges. Otherwise, go to the Operations table or approach any concom member (black event badge) and simply ask to speak to someone on the consent team. You do not have to provide any details about why you are asking. The person you ask will locate an on-duty consent team member and either escort you to them or have them meet you in whatever location you designate. If you prefer, you can also use email to make the initial report but the response time will likely be longer.

For other types of policy violations, the best way to report is to go to the Ops desk and tell the person on duty that you wish to report a policy violation. They will either take the report personally or summon a concom member at your option. You can also use email, but it will likely take longer to get a response because we aren’t very quick at checking email during the event.

Before/After the event

Before the event starts or once the event is over, the best way to submit a report is via email. To report a consent incident that occurred at the event, email consent@charmedhypno.org. This email address goes directly to the consent team lead and is not copied to anyone on the concom.

You can submit a report to report@charmedhypno.org for issues not involving a consent incident that occurred at the event. This address is used for reports such as:

1. Privacy or safety concerns either before, during, or after the event
2. Consent incidents that happened outside of Charmed! involving known or potential attendees.

Please be aware that members of the concom and/or the operations staff (but not the consent team) will be able to view emails sent to report@charmedhypno.org. If your report involves someone in event leadership, use consent@charmedhypno.org and the consent team lead will engage the appropriate people to handle the report.

Also, please note that because of prior incidents we do NOT accept or process complaints relating to interpersonal conflicts, ethical disagreements, or anything that does not affect Charmed! attendees as a group. We will be the ultimate arbiters of what report we will take.

Required Information

In order to be actionable, a report must contain at least basic information:

1. The scene name(s) of the people involved in the incident and contact emails if known
2. A reasonably detailed recounting of the incident as it occurred.
3. Some means of contacting the person reporting the incident

If you are reporting an incident that happened between other people, please also describe your relationship to the people involved, if any (ex: close friend, acquaintance, play partner, spouse, significant other, paramour/metamour, total stranger, etc.) and whether you were a witness to the incident or not. We reserve the right to decline to process reports that are not based on direct observation of an incident (for example, “My friend X told me that Y violated Z’s consent” — though we would likely contact Z regardless to make sure they’re okay).

Anonymous Reports
Anonymous reports are virtually impossible to resolve in any meaningful way, so it is the policy of Charmed! not to accept or act on anonymous reports.

Reports Involving Concom or Consent Team members
When a concom member has a conflict of interest involving a report, that concom member must recuse themselves from all decisions involving the report and is not permitted to access the details of the report, including the identity of the reporting person.

When a member of the consent team has a conflict of interest involving a report, that team member is not permitted to take part in the handling of the report or to access information about the report.

 In an extraordinary case where a report creates a conflict of interest for majority of the concom, the concom may request that another event concom handle the report to assure objectivity. If a report creates a conflict of interest for the entire consent team, Charmed! may request that another event’s concom, or an external consent-resolution organization, handle the report to assure objectivity.

Report Handling
Consent incident reports involving events that took place at Charmed! are handled directly by the consent team. The consent team will:

Ensure that everyone involved is safe and supported
Interview the individuals involved in the incident and any direct witnesses to determine as best they can what happened
Submit a report to the concom summarizing the information obtained
The consent team’s report is then reviewed by the concom, who are solely responsible for deciding whether corrective action is warranted and what actions are appropriate to the situation.

Reports involving privacy, harassment, consent incidents not occurring at Charmed!, and other matters are handled by the Charmed! concom, possibly with the assistance of the consent team. In such cases, the following process applies:

The concom designates a person to manage the incident report (report manager).
The report manager contacts everyone involved in the reported incident to take their statement as to what happened.
The report manager reports back to the concom with the facts as outlined by the various statements.
The concom decides what actions to take, if any, in response.
Some incidents may by their nature require us to deviate from our usual process, in which case we will do what seems to make sense for that incident. Our default is to follow our process as outlined.

Neither the consent team nor the concom will interview or take a statement from anyone who does not consent to that interaction. The consent team is never tasked with drawing conclusions or making recommendations when handling a report.

Resulting Actions

Actions taken by the concom in response to a verified consent incident report or other policy violation will be determined at the discretion of the concom and considering all factors related to the incident and offender. Actions which might be taken include, but are not limited to:

Confiscating the offending person(s)’s event badge during the event, which bars them from further participation.
Restrict the offending person(s) from attending specific classes or events
Require the offending person(s) to attend specific classes or to receive mandatory coaching relevant to the offense
Barring the offending person(s) from public play in the play spaces
Placing restrictions on the offending person(s)’s play, such as requiring the use of the written negotiation form or allowing play with existing partners only.
Barring the offending person(s) from approaching or communicating with the offended person(s) for the remainder of the event.
Canceling the offending person(s)’s registration and refunding their money prior to the event
Canceling any classes which the offending person(s) was/were scheduled to teach at the event or recruiting a different presenter to teach them and barring the offending person from attending.
Banning the offending person(s) from attending or teaching at Charmed! for a specified period or permanently.

Communication

While a report is being reviewed and processed, someone in the group responsible for handling the report will be a designated reporting contact for the report. The reporting contact is responsible for communicating regularly with the reporting party to provide status and answer any questions about the process.

When the concom reaches a decision on the report, the reporting contact communicates directly with the reporting party to convey in general terms what the outcome was. For liability reasons, details will not be discussed. The concom, at its discretion, may inform other event concoms about consent-related incidents and their resolutions.

Privacy

All reports are considered to be sensitive in nature. Except for summarized reports to other concoms as described below, the details of a report are not released to others who are not directly working on the report without the consent of those involved in the report. The identity of the person reporting is treated as confidential and only disclosed to those with a need to know.

Note: When handling a consent incident report, the consent team will necessarily have to describe to the person accused the general nature of the incident, which may give the accused sufficient information to deduce the identity of the reporting person. Neither the consent team nor the concom will ever confirm or deny anyone’s guess as to who has filed a report or disclose the identity of a reporting person.

When an incident has potential to affect other events, Charmed! will generally inform other erotic hypnosis events about that incident. The report takes the form of an email to the concoms of those events which includes the scene name of the person found to have violated policy, the nature of the policy violation, and the action(s) taken by Charmed! in response. Other details may be provided at the other event’s request but will not include the identity of the reporting person. In cases where someone is accused of a consent violation but cleared, Charmed! may communicate that information to other event concoms to offset any reputation damage that may have been done to the person(s) accused.