Hi all,

The board of directors has voted unanimously to approve the following Code of Conduct for the team. If you have any questions, let us know. We will also discuss this at the team meeting next week.



Dashing Whippets Code of Conduct

• Members shall control their conduct during club workouts, activities, and at races whilst at all times being respectful to all teammates and opponents and shall conduct themselves in a manner that will ensure the safety of others so as to not reflect negatively on the club and its members.
  
• Members shall choose their words carefully and shall refrain from talking negatively about others when interacting with teammates, other running clubs and opponents when at club workouts, activities, races, or via the Internet in public forums.
  
• Members shall conduct themselves in a manner that will ensure a comfortable and welcoming club environment. Members are expected to interact with all persons in a manner that avoids behavior that could be construed as discrimination or sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is defined as "Unwanted sexual advances, or visual, verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature." Members are expected to respect the age, religion, ethic background, gender, and sexual orientation ofother members. Members are to recognize that the club operates as a sport and social club, however also are to understand that discrimination or unwanted and/or continued advances toward other members will not be accepted and that all members have the right to an environment free from all forms of discrimination, including sexual harassment.
  
• Members should acknowledge the accomplishments and efforts of others, encouraging all teammates and opponents to excel whilst keeping in mind you represent the club as an ambassador to the community at large.
  
• Members are responsible to ensure that this Code of Conduct is followed and are expected to report any inappropriate actions or behavior to a club officer.
  
• Membership may be terminated by resignation of a member, or by a majority vote of the club officers for violations of this Code of Conduct.
  

read and understood

Matt (and captains),

It starts off rather harsh. The first few words of item 1 says "Members shall control their conduct", as if we're a bunch of out of control adolescents whose behavior must be reigned in. Item 2 starts "Members shall choose their words carefully and shall refrain from talking negatively".

Seems to me to strike the wrong tone for how i view my experience on the team.

Could it be edited to focus more on promoting desired behavior--the traits of good citizenship so to speak--vs. restricting negative behavior, which makes the authors of the document sound as if they don't trust the members?

or even at least move some of the nicer sounding ones to the top, like 4 and 3?

Look at code of conducts for groups like the red cross or even the hippocratic oath.

http://en.wikipedia.o...

http://en.wikipedia.o...

I realize it's likely a cut and paste job so that we have something in place and if that's all it is, some document that no one ever reads but we need for legal purposes, ok. But if it's meant to actually convey something about the values of the group, it does it in a voice that i find unrecognizable and frankly, somewhat un-appealing. And hey, is no one going to comment on the use of "whilst"?! What is this, cut and pasted from the 15th century?

maybe i'm off-base and all codes of conduct sound like this and that i should not be confusing a code of conduct with a mission statement. if so i guess ignore what i said--except maybe for the whilst part :-)

Ben, you took the words right out of my mouth, "...and all codes of conduct sound like this and that i should not be confusing a code of conduct with a mission statement."

Yes, this is absolutely not a mission statement but merely a very official-sounding legal code of conduct. Have to say the word "whilst" doesn't bug me though.

Good points! Glad to see someone is reading this carefully and with a thoughtful eye.

Thanks P!

by the way i googled whilst to see if it was more than "archaic usage" vs current usage, or UK vs US.

found this post in a discussion forum:

'Whilst' is an adverbial genitive. This means it is used to describe verbs.
For an example of where it's used, 'Whilst rising, the sun shone'.

Not used as 'Whilst the sun was rising, it shone'. 'While' would be used instead here.

More on adverbial genitive found here:

http://en.wikipedia.o...

Now this runner's code of conduct is in the right place…

"High School runner carries injured foe half mile to help in middle of race"

" Ripley immediately noticed Paulauskas holding his bloody ankle. Then, instead of running back and calling for help, he did the only thing he could think of: He carried the injured runner a half mile back to coaches and family members...When Paulauskas arrived at the hospital, doctors realized he had been accidentally spiked by another runner's shoe during the race. The injury required 20 stitches and a walking boot to keep the wounded area from opening up."

After he droppped off the runner back 1/2 mile back at the finish, he turned around and finished the race.

from http://rivals.yahoo.c...

Ben, you are an endless supply of knowledge! Love it. Yes, in terms of exemplary conduct, I must remind everyone again I was witness to it in Lehigh with Tommy Pyon leading our fearless men onto successful runs and personal bests. Also, I'll never forget Luciano and Megan being at my finish line for MCM. EVER. There is behavior that warrants reprimand which we hope to avoid by setting up Code of Conduct here but to your point, there are endless stories of teammates going above and beyond. That is part of our mission and we don't need a code for people to live up to. They just seem to do it!

Could it be edited to focus more on promoting desired behavior--the traits of good citizenship so to speak--vs. restricting negative behavior, which makes the authors of the document sound as if they don't trust the members?

I completely agree with Ben's statement here. This code is in sharp contrast to the overall friendly and collegial image of the group that I have come to know. I would suggest a revision as well, as Ben said, to emphasize good behavior. And then add a note that any actions which are contrary to the code will be dealt with...

This is not a Code which I would feel would be a good introduction to the team. Just think, would you feel comfortable handing this code out to new members on their first day? I think they would get a cold impression of the team.

I understand what you both say and we can talk about it at the meeting next week. You would think and hope that such a code wouldn't be needed and I would expect that it will never apply to 99.9% of members. We may do some rewording of it, but it most likely will not be significant. This is actually fairly standard language for many organizations and should be seen as protecting members from behavior that makes them feel uncomfortable attending team functions, not as language to scold people.

Also, please know that this does not just come out of a vacuum, but as a response to several specific incidents. We feel like we need something such as this both to protect members as mentioned above and to give us as an organization a path to do something about any inappropriate actions. I hope that makes sense.

Sorry, but I don`t see all this big deal about how it was written. The message is pretty clear. Like Anthony posted "read and understood" he even added a smily face at the end. We all know how cool this team is. And this is just a legal document. You guys should read the code of conduct of my gym