Disruptive/Unsocial Behavior At Events (And In General)

As Event Coordinator, you have a moral obligation (if not a legal one) to ensure your event's attendees have a reasonably safe and comfortable environment. Unfortunately one person can spoil it for the group, either by bothering one or more persons, or being disruptive to most if not all of the group. Disruptive behavior can happened regardless of any 'screening' process, and can include (but is not limited to):
Off-color talk (if causing discomfort/embarrassment among members of the group)
Derogatory statements of a racial, sexual or religious nature discriminatory
Insults, harassment, or threats of physical violence
Unwanted sexual advances toward an individual (including touching or groping)
Stalking of a group member (this may occur outside of events)
Unprovoked assault on another person.

In these types of situations, once a problem has been brought to your (the Event Coordinator) attention (either by the person being harasses, or by obvious behavior on the part of the disruptive person) the initial step always involves talking and attempting to reason with the person. It is always recommended to use a steady, calm, but determined voice, to avoid either provoking the person further or appearing condescending to them. Screaming matches are to be avoided in any case, as they will get you nowhere, but like anything the success of reasoning of the person depends on the situation - it is clearly more successful in situations involving unwanted sexual behavior or derogatory/off-colored talk, than in situations where the person is threatening or inflicting physical violence.

It is possible the person may be extremely agitated, threatening, and unlikely to listen to reason. In that case, don't be a hero - get outside help. In most cases this will involve alerting the management of the venue the event is in, albeit at a certain level it may require escalation involving law enforcement officials - as stated, your safety and that of the other members of the group is paramount, so don't be a hero.

Please be aware that, in fact, no show of physical violence as ever happened during an OLBS event, so this page in that regard is overkill - but, over the years a few women have felt uncomfortable or even felt they were being stalked. This is really why this page has been included, to help in those situations

Note that, by consensus of the group, if a person continually acts in a disruptive manner at events, and shows no propensity to rectify his/her ways, then the Group reserves the right to blacklist this person, banning them from attending future events, and revoking their membership (and event newsletter) rights with no refund. It is hoped that such drastic measures will not be needed, but it is best to be prepared.

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