Community Guidelines

Women* Writing Berlin Lab e.V.

Preamble: Who are we?
Community Inclusivity
Online: Code of Conduct
Offline: Code of Conduct
What does WWBL provide to its members?
Access to our Online and Offline activities
Posting Rule (Online Community)
Expulsion
WWBL Team
Thank you to the Community :)

1.Preamble: Who are we?

The Women* Writing Berlin Lab is an open, inclusive community for all individuals identifying as women* with the aim of creating a digital and physical space focused on the common interest of writing. Our main aim is to provide women* in Berlin a safe space for creativity, where women* can meet, get to know each other, extend their network, share their experience and practice various forms of writing. The WWBL promotes literacy activities, virtual (online) and in-person, such as but not limited to: writing lab sessions, poetry readings and slams, workshops, and social meetups. We are a non-profit organization connecting diverse groups of women with a writing platform and community allowing them to express their voices on a range of topics and life experiences. We believe that as Chimamanda Adiche so beautifully stated, "Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize.” Your story matters and it needs to be shared.

The WWBL is run by women volunteers. We dedicate our free time to manage and run the activities. Paid activities are meant to support the work of the organizers or service providers.

2. Inclusive Community Inclusivity

The WWBL stands for openness, inclusion, and diversity. We offer our programs and activities to female-identifying individuals including non-binary, gender non-conforming individuals, and transwomen*. Our space is open to everyone who shares our values.

We are happy to welcome every women* that shows respect, openness, and curiosity towards other women*’s voices and experiences. We support intersectional and transnational feminism. A feminist perspective that includes the diversity of women*’s experiences and includes multiple positionalities.

We welcome women* from every background: coming from every socio-cultural and economic background, from every nationality, belonging to every religion, identifying with every sexual orientation and gender identity. We especially encourage women* from minorities or from marginalized positions to think of our space as a safe space for their voice and experience to be expressed and heard loud. We put our best effort to make sure that the space stays safe and rules and values are respected and attended by every member.

We work to include women* with visible and invisible disabilities to be part of our community because we believe that accessibility is an integral value of our community. We want to give every women*, from every background and of every kind the physical and virtual chance to join our space and our activities and contribute to the growth and diversity of who we are and what we do.

We invite women* with passion for writing to join our community, no matter what kind of writing they usually practice. We also invite women* whose passion is not writing to join us and explore our activities and find their own space within it even just to connect with other women* and share in other creative forms their own experience and personality. Interactions and networking conducive to supporting and expanding the community is welcome.

Based on our community values of openness, inclusion, and diversity, we do not tolerate any form of insult, offense, discrimination, hate speech or discriminatory, excluding behaviors online and offline.

Explanation of offline and online conduct is further outlined below.
We are a space for discussion, education, and sharing. However, attitudes against our principle of diversity, inclusion, and equality will be taken seriously, discussed with the interested persons and if repeatedly done they will lead to the expulsion from the community.

3. Online Code of Conduct

The WWBL organizes and promotes most of its activities on social media platforms. The pages, groups, accounts and communities are supposed to be a space for sharing, engaging with each other and exchanging ideas, opinions, and events. Before accessing the online group, members must familiarize themselves with our community values, guidelines, and request admittance by a community admin. Since our values are openness, inclusion, and diversity, we want to ensure that the people attending our online and offline spaces are adhering to community values and upholding the creation of safe spaces.

In the online group you can:

Participate in existing threads
Start new threads (they have to be approved. See section 7: Posting rules for more details).
Ask questions and reply to other members’ questions
Ask for information regarding events, activities, workshops and community-related topics.
Share accessible (free) projects that can be interesting and relevant to the community and its scope (festival, writing competition, writing-related events, book recommendation,...)
Privately but respectfully and mindfully approach other members observing the common good practices for respectful interaction and communication.
To access the online group, new members are required to reply to questions and introduce themselves to the group.

In the online group you cannot:

Self-promotion or Threads whose only purpose is to promote personal projects that do not involve a collective interest or purpose (e.g. paid events, self-promoting events or workshop or activities, self-promotional posts from inactive community members, promoting events that do not present any continuity with the purpose of the community)
To use aggressive, disrespectful and offensive, discriminatory tone, words, and language.
To approach other members for the purpose of promotion or spam
To harass other members through inappropriate questions, requests or purposes (unrequested or pushy flirting attitude…)
To post pictures or sensitive data of the members without their consent and authorizations.
To screenshot or report sensitive information related to the community or the members in other groups, because we want our members to keep feeling that the WWBL Community is a safe space, we want to make sure that interactions with other members happen in respectful and consensual terms. For some people it can be disturbing to be approached by strangers and about sensitive topics, even if you share a common interest or a common activity within the community. Therefore, we require our members to behave consciously when it comes to approaching other members privately and we encourage anyone who feels harassed or disturbed by another member's behavior to report it to the team immediately.
Screenshotting of private groups and private profiles goes against our community values and will lead to repercussions as far as but not exclusively to legal actions.

4. Offline code of conduct

During the WWBL offline events and activities, members are requested to behave and interact according to the common good practices. We especially encourage our members and activities attendees to use communication and a language that does not dismiss, belittle or offend other members. We promote a mindful communication style, where every opinion and every intervention is welcomed with openness, curiosity and constructive attitude. We like our space to encourage criticism and reflection, however, we believe this can happen in a respectful, non-aggressive context.

Racist, xenophobic, islamophobic, afrophobic, sexist, ageist, ableist and discriminatory, exclusionary speech are not tolerated.

Events are for community members only. If you are bringing a new person to introduce them to the community, just let us know in advance and be sure to introduce them to our guidelines prior to participating in our event. This is a POC/LGBTQ/Women friendly environment where individuals are coming together as a community. For this reason, we ask that you conduct yourself appropriately and respectfully.**" However, should the behavioral expectations not be posted explicitly, expectations default to those outlined in the community guidelines.

According to the GDPR European regulation and to the protection of individual rights and because of sensitive data shared on the occasion of WWBL events, no pictures, videos, Instagram stories or other forms of public recording are allowed without all the present members’ consent.

When attending an offline event, it is imperative to treat the space and organizer with respect and to not divulge personal information (such as addresses, phone numbers, last names, etc.) as some locations may be individual homes, apartments, personal workspaces, small businesses, etc.. whose privacy is paramount in maintaining the location/organizer’s safety.

The WWBL welcomes all individuals identifying as women* (see section 2), therefore we encourage members to not invite male identifying individuals to join our activities, online and offline groups or activities.

We request members attending the offline activities to avoid promotional and marketing messages. If you look for marketing or promoting your services or product during one of our events, please get in touch prior to it to discuss terms and conditions.

Women* are allowed to bring children during our events if the location is able to accommodate for the child’s safety. Please, let us know in advance, so we can arrange the venues accordingly.

The WWBL does not take legal responsibility for accidents or misbehaviors happening during the group activities. As facilitators, our aim is to bring women* together and operate for community purposes, however, we are not responsible for private encounters or interactional conflicts happening between members.

5. What does the WWBL provide to its members?

The WWBL provides:

Online and offline structures and infrastructure for members to share a virtual and physical space for exchange, network and writing-related activities and discussions.
A safe space for women* to express their voice and creativity, especially focussing on writing.
Online and offline activities, like writing lab sessions, workshops, book clubs, etc… to practice writing and their community’s purposes (education, culture, and art)
Access to a large community of private individuals with common interests.
Full commitment to keep the safe space and to moderate interactions online and offline.
Availability and opportunities for members to come up with ideas and projects to be shared in the community
Platforming the works and successes of community members
Writing tips, prompts, reading inputs and recommendations, ideas for related events and activities
Educational opportunities, workshops or training as offered by private individuals and/or community members

The WWBL does not provide:

Medical or therapeutic support of any kind
Therapy sessions or psychological counseling
National recognized training for professional training
On-demand promotions or marketing
Marketing or branding for individuals

6. Access to our online and offline activities

Activities are generally open to every individual identifying as women*. Events marked as “public” and promoted on the WWBL Facebook Page are open to members and not members.

Events marked as “community only” and promoted on the WWBL Facebook Group,Instagram, and website are open to community members only of which attendees are expected to comply with WWBL’s Community Guidelines. To access the online group, new members are required to reply to two questions and introduce themselves to the group.

In order to access offline public events, if it's not required differently in the event description, please get in touch at womenwritingberlinlab@gmail.com.

7. Posting Rules

Posts in the Facebook Groups need to be approved by an admin.
Accepted Posts are:

Community relevant questions
Community relevant information
Book recommendations

Self-introduction for new members

Sharing and promotion of community relevant projects, events, activities, resources, etc.

NOT Accepted Posts are:

Spam message
Self-promotion
Promotion of paid and not community-relevant activities and events
Marketing purposes
Any post that does not align with the community values. Included but not limited to: racist, xenophobic, Islamophobic, afrophobic, sexist, ageist, ableist, discriminatory, and/or exclusionary speech are not tolerated.

8. Expulsion

In case of conflict or behaviors/messages/attitudes violating the WWBL’s community guidelines, one of the admins will reach out to the involved persons to clarify the situation and look for potential solutions.

In case of conflict, misunderstandings, boundaries-crossing tones and interactions, one of the admins will facilitate and moderate an exchange to try to resolve issues.

In case of persistent misbehaviors, the persons involved will be immediately expelled from the community.

In case of explicit hate speech and discriminatory language, behavior or attitudes, the persons involved will be immediately expelled with no further justification from the WWBL side.

9. The WWBL Team

WWBL is run by women volunteers. We dedicate our free time to manage and run the activities. Paid activities are meant to support the work of the organizers or service providers.

Gmail: womenwritingberlinlab@gmail.com

Facebook (Page): https://www.facebook.com/wearewwbl/

Facebook (Group): https://www.facebook.com/groups/456166558076074/

Instagram: @wearewwbl

10. Thank you to the community :)

Lastly, we wanted to say the most important part which is thank you. Our community is growing and great things are coming our way. We wanted to ensure that everyone in our community understands how much we appreciate them, their time, and their creative works. We have expanded so much in the two years since our creation and we have learned a lot along the way including what works, what doesn’t, and what needs to change. We look forward to growing the community and having you with us!

For any further questions, do not hesitate to get in touch womenwritingberlinlab@gmail.com