Effective: December 19, 2021
If you believe a consent incident has occurred:
At a CUFF event: Verbally tell a Dungeon Monitor, clearly marked delegate, or an event organizer as soon as you feel comfortable doing so. Swift action can be taken at the behest of the reporter. Violation of the consent policy may result in immediate expulsion from the event. No one is exempt from the rules. Depending on the situation, we may request a written follow-up report. Incidents occurring at events need not be reported immediately.
Outside of one of our events: Please contact us with pertinent information.
Until resolved, all incident reports are held confidential between CUFF Board members, involved parties, and those responding.
The reporting party may choose to stay anonymous even to responders, but please note that anonymity may significantly impede our ability to fully respond to the incident.
Protection of the reporting person's identity is the default expectation, unless the reporting person prefers otherwise. The existence and details of a given incident response procedure should be kept confidential, between the Incident Response group, the CUFF Board, and the reporting person. There is no expectation that an accused person will be provided with the identity of the reporting person.
The reporting person may request to exclude members of the Board or response team that the reporting person feels may be biased. The Board or members of the response team may also voluntarily recuse themselves from an incident; for example, if they are a legally mandated reporter and the reporting person does not wish to make a criminal complaint.
If the reporting person has provided contact information, we will confirm we received your message. We may have follow-up questions for you in order to determine your and our community's safety and to determine our best course of action.
There is no time limit on how long you can wait to reach out to CUFF leadership. However, the sooner you make a report, the more likely that we will be able to gather relevant, helpful information to aid us in determining what action to take.
When a consent incident is reported, our default approach is to believe accusations unless there is strong evidence to the contrary. We will do our best to determine "what happened" and to establish the facts to the best of our ability.
However, we are not a court of law, nor do we pretend to be. We will not attempt to determine blame or guilt. We will use the information we are able to acquire to make a decision that attempts to balance the needs and concerns of the group and larger community with the needs and concerns of the individuals involved.
We must always address concerns on a case-by-case basis. We recognize that we may be required to make decisions based on incomplete and/or inaccurate information.
In cases of a reported consent incident in which the facts are uncertain, we will always act in the interest of the alleged victim and in the interest of protecting the group and its participants, and by extension, the greater community.
CUFF recognizes the importance of maintaining a volunteer Incident Response (IR) group which is separate from the Board, although individuals' roles may overlap if/when too few IR volunteers exist. Ideally IR volunteers have relevant training in Incident Response, and are not legally mandated reporters. The number of IR group members may range between one and three.
Making knowingly false or malicious accusations of sexual assault, misconduct, or harassment can have serious consequences for those who are wrongly accused. CUFF prohibits making false or malicious allegations, as well as deliberately providing false information regarding an incident report. Such actions will be regarded as an act of harassment in themselves.
CUFF reserves the right to decline to intervene in certain situations or incidents. These may include:
Verbal or written interactions occurring outside CUFF events.
Incidents we feel are outside CUFF's purview.
Emotional abuse, private relationship disputes, or cheating.
Unsanitary/unsafe practices in personal interactions.
Any report we believe to have been made in bad faith, or intended to silence legitimate criticism.
The Board may place the accused person on temporary suspension as we attempt to gather information and until we are able to confer as a Board and make a decision. While on temporary suspension, the accused may not serve in any official capacity for CUFF and may not attend any CUFF events. This entire process may happen within a few minutes or hours of an incident reported at one of our events, but may take a few days or longer to resolve.
The reporting person may withdraw the report at any point, no questions asked.
The IR team will discuss the report. IR team members are expected to recuse themselves from scenarios in which they may be biased.
The IR team reports their recommendation to the Board.
The CUFF Board will formulate and vote on a response to the report. Possible responses include:
Taking no action
Issuing a formal warning
Issuing a temporary suspension from CUFF events
Banning the accused person from future events
A permanent expulsion/ban from CUFF
Expelled CUFF contributors will receive a refund of the current year's contributor fee.
In determining whether a particular person may attend CUFF events, the Board may consider:
Bans by other groups.
Active restraining orders.
Criminal convictions, including sex offender registries.
While CUFF is not an investigative body, if a reporting person chooses to file a criminal complaint, CUFF will cooperate fully with any external law enforcement investigation.
Notice: In the case of a criminal complaint, the Board of Directors, Dungeon Monitors and any other volunteer or attendee may be interviewed by law enforcement as part of an investigation, and may be called into court as a witness to the activity. Witnesses may be subpoenaed in criminal trials, and are therefore outed.