How to Report a Conduct Issue

What can I report?

Our policies contain the standards of behaviour for Menhirs Fate, both in the field and in online spaces. If you have seen or experienced a breach of these rules by any other participant we encourage you to report it to the Conduct Team. If another participant has confided in you with details of an incident that you consider to be a breach of conduct, we would also ask that you report it to us. You can report any incident, regardless of where or when it took place. It could have occurred online, at one of our events, a separate event or beyond larp.

You can report a breach of conduct by any participant, whether player, crew, staff, caterers, traders or security. If you report a breach of conduct by someone who has not attended an event and thus does not have any accounts on our system, then we will make a note of it, but take no further action. If you have a complaint about a participant who is no longer permitted to attend our events, then we will let you know that they have received a ban.

When you report a breach of conduct. The crew will contact the conduct team which currently consists of:

Head of Nation Support: Persephone Harrison

Welfare Team: Sam Brown & Gavin Harcourt

Dungeon Control: Ruth Fogg

Nation Support: Sam Cheung

While Alex Smith is the Director contact for conduct, the Conduct team will meet to make decisions and bring in Alex where needed.

We also have front-line conduct support embedded within roles in the field. Although they are not full-time members of the conduct team, they are there to ensure that pressing conduct issues are passed on to the relevant team members during events. They can be contacted as an immediate response for a conduct issue to allow a conduct team member to make their way over.

Nation Support: George Cook,

If you are unsure whether something breaches our conduct rules, but it has left you feeling uncomfortable or distressed, then we would still encourage you to speak to us. We can discuss the incident with you to see if any of our rules have been violated and look at what steps we can take to support you.

You might be worried about whether an incident is worth reporting, or concerned that reporting might cause problems for us or take up our time. We would always rather know about what is happening – reporting helps us to make our events safer for everyone.

All breaches of conduct are investigated by our conduct team. You can ask for a specific member of the team if you would like, or ask for a member of the team of a particular gender.

If you are at an event, you can bring a conduct incident to the attention of any member of our crew. Each nation camp has nation support and the centre of the IC field has guild support, who have radio access personally or within their team that they can use to get hold of a member of the conduct team for you.

Rather than reporting in detail to the crew member, let them know that you want to speak to the conduct team. If you cannot easily find a member of crew with a radio, the best alternative is to go to the bank to get help there. There will be a member of the Director team on call with the security staff each night at Menhirs Fate events and conduct complaints can be taken to the security team who will contact a Director. They will be able to take immediate details and a member of the conduct team will be contacted the following morning.

If you are reporting an incident after an event, we have a dedicated email address – conduct@menhirsfate.com This goes directly to every member of the conduct team.

If the report is about a member of the conduct team, you can request to speak to any other member privately or to speak to Alex Smith – you can ask any member of crew to be put in touch with him while at an event or email him on alex@menhirsfate.com. He will make arrangements for you to speak in confidence with the other members of the conduct team.

When Can I Report?

The conduct team are available between 9am and 1am at every event to report an incident in person. If something occurs during the night and you are concerned for your immediate safety, you can contact the security team. They will refer the matter to the conduct team the next morning so that they can arrange to speak to you.

Alternatively, you can make a report online at any point between events at conduct@menhirsfate.com

We understand that speaking to Menhirs Fate about a breach of conduct can be intimidating. If an incident takes place at an event, it is easier to investigate it more thoroughly while everyone involved is still on site. However, we know that reporting during events is not possible for everyone and that you may need time before you feel ready to speak to us. It does not matter how much time has passed since an incident occurred – we will take any breach of our conduct rules seriously, regardless of how long ago it was.

What Happens Next?

The conduct team will ask you for as full a description of the conduct incident as you feel comfortable providing. It is not a problem if you don’t know the player or character name, but it would help us to identify those involved.
Once your description has been given we may ask for any additional evidence so we can build as clear a record as possible. Any screenshots, emails or private messages that can be used in support of a report are extremely useful if you are comfortable sharing them, especially when reporting online behaviour 

The team may ask some follow up questions, such as when the incident occurred, or the number of occurrences. The more information you can give, the more it will help the team – but there is no mandatory level of detail you must give for your report to be taken seriously.

The conduct team will then begin an investigation with your permission. This will usually involve speaking to the people mentioned in your report, gathering further information where possible and deciding on an appropriate outcome. If there is anyone you do not want the conduct team to speak to about the incident, then you must let them know at this point

If you choose to not proceed with an investigation the team will go on to review all the information available at this point. This will include looking at any previous reports on record. The conduct team will let you know the outcome and what course of action they plan to take. If the reporting participant would like to submit a conduct report but would prefer us to not take certain actions we can take that into consideration. We may still need to take action in a serious conduct situation to protect the safety of other participants.

The conduct team will keep a permanent record of your report and any investigations made, and will take them into account if any future conduct reports are made about the same individual(s).

Some incidents that occur on site may require us to inform our security team and in these cases they are required as part of the response. A member of the Conduct team will remain with you for support during any interactions at your request.

How much agency will I have?

We will work with you to investigate breaches of conduct within the Menhirs Fate community but are aware that we are a new system within a wider hobby. As such we aim to investigate within limits set by you such as not contacting specific individuals or not implementing certain sanctions. As far as possible, we will respect your wishes.

If you ask us not to investigate then we will still ask for you to provide as complete a description of events as you feel comfortable providing. We will keep this confidential record even if we don’t take any further action. We may not be able to take effective action in cases where information may be limited and we will have to act on what we are able to gather.
Regardless of any investigation or action taken in line with your wishes, having a record of events allows us to establish patterns of behaviour if any other reports appear around the same individual.

If the team do have your permission to carry out an investigation, then they will do so, but they will not contact anyone you ask them not to approach. For example, you can ask the team not to contact the person you are reporting, or not to contact specific eyewitnesses or other people your report mentions. This can limit our ability to look into the matter, but we will still carry out as full an investigation as possible within the remit you have permitted.

If you give us permission to carry out an investigation but later you change your mind, then we will not investigate further. If you have asked us not to investigate your report, you can change your mind at any time and we will open an investigation.

The conduct team will decide what sanctions are appropriate to impose. We will not impose a caution on an individual or give them a formal warning if you have asked us not to do so. We will only override your request if we feel we need to permanently ban someone to remove a substantial risk of serious harm.

In all cases, we will keep a permanent record of your report on our database. This record will only be visible to members of the conduct team and key senior members of staff at Menhirs Fate who need access to the information to run events as safely as possible. If any other reports are made in the future involving the same person, the conduct team will take your report and any previous reports into account.

How long will it take?

Conduct complaints can take time to investigate, both at events and in between. We may need to find and speak to people in the field, alongside discussing between conduct team members and other escalation points in serious matters.

We will aim to update you with any developments where possible by the end of the event. We will attempt to contact you before you leave site to let you know if we require any follow up information via email.

Outside of events, the team will need to collate information, which may involve waiting for people to reply to emails. The team will also need to hold regular meetings to discuss conduct cases. If you report an incident between events, the conduct team will send an acknowledgement that they have received your report within 72 hours. If we are dealing with any report between events we will update you on progress every two weeks until the matter is concluded.

Involving Security

We will have to inform SES if there is an immediate threat to property or life where someone is at risk. Conduct issues will still be dealt with via the Conduct Team. They may need to call upon our security team but we will not involve them without your permission unless we need to protect the safety of participants.

Involving the police

Serious breaches of our conduct rules may constitute a criminal offence. It is the choice of the victim to report a crime. The conduct team will take any report seriously, regardless of whether or not you also decide to report it to the police. Any participant who wishes to report a matter to the police will have our full support and cooperation in doing that.

We have an obligation to report suspected criminal activity that involves terrorism or where there is concern about the protection of children and vulnerable adults. We will comply with any legal requirements in this regard.

Confidentiality

If you make a report to our conduct team they will share key details with each other as part of their standard process, so that they can determine an agreed response. This is so they can work as a team with serious issues and ensure they are able to consider multiple approaches and angle where needed. Details of cases may be shared with key Menhirs Fate personnel who need to be aware of these details to ensure event and community safety or those who support the conduct team in carrying out their roles.

We will not share any details of your report with anyone else unless we are legally compelled to do so. We will not take steps to investigate if you have asked us not to. We won’t approach any individual you name as part of any investigation you’ve agreed we can undertake.