At the Libre Graphics Meeting in Leipzig a volunteer in a position of responsibility engaged in unacceptable behaviour which included physical assault and verbal bullying of a conference participant. There are witnesses to this incident and several others. Before this incident, the same volunteer made threatening statements in public and in private by e-mail, on IRC and in person.
In a meeting following the incident, the volunteer was told this behaviour was unacceptable. After being told this, the volunteer continued to make threatening statements about the participant and also to other members of the community.
The gravity of these incidents and the impact they have on the safety and well-being of other volunteers and event participants needs to be addressed. Though the LGM community and event do not currently have an explicit code of conduct in place, physical violence and threats of planned harm cannot and will not be tolerated.
We have been notified that the volunteer in question continues to engage in harassing behaviour, and have thus decided to draw a line.
We have notified the aggressor that we do not want their participation in future Libre Graphics Meetings and the related communication channels.
We regret having to take this action due to the help given by this volunteer at LGM. These aggressive actions however leave us no choice.
LGM organizers, incident witnesses and attendees of the LGM 2014 in Leipzig:
Steve Conklin
ginger coons
Louis Desjardins
Chris Lilley
Jon Nordby
Michael Schumacher
Femke Snelting
Susan Spencer