By Kathy Story, PCDC Board President
I am excited to report that the PCDC board has approved a Code of Conduct and a statement of Community Standards. These guiding documents continue the important work accomplished by the previous board, who created a Mission, Vision, Values, and Goals statement for our organization and substantially revised the PCDC Bylaws (download PDF).
The new Community Standards are aspirational and give those who attend our events a good idea of how we view, create, and sustain our community. The Code of Conduct is more formal and provides guidance about behavioral expectations and possible consequences if those expectations are not met. You can download the Code of Conduct here and the Community Standards here. Please take a few minutes to review them. The Community Standards will be posted at all our events, with a QR code to the Code of Conduct.
It has been a long and thoughtful journey. A task force chaired by Christine Appleberry (with Ash Goren, Norman Farrell, Ric Goldman, Sue Songer, and myself as members) did extensive work over a 10-month period. We discussed the needs of our organization, studied conduct codes of other dance organizations, wrote and revised many drafts, and presented a preliminary draft of each document to the PCDC board at the February meeting. The board gave oral and written feedback and the new drafts were sent to the Contra, English, Raindance, and Northwest Passage committees for feedback. Final drafts were presented to the PCDC board at our March meeting, and after minor revisions, the board approved both the Code of Conduct and the Community Standards. Thanks to the taskforce members, the board, and all the committees for their work!
The Code and the Community Standards are living documents. The board always welcomes community input. If you have any questions, concerns, or just want to talk about PCDC, please don’t hesitate to contact me (board-chair@portlandcountrydance.org) or any other board member. And thank you, our dedicated members, for making PCDC a welcoming, inclusive, safe, and fun dance and music community.