From year to year we’ve had a lot of good feedback about Bladeworks, and especially about the atmosphere at the event and how much fun everyone has. We very much want to keep that positive atmosphere, so we ask that all attendees and instructors and event staff follow the below Code of Conduct.
For each club with enough attendance to be spread across several rooms we’ll ask for a nominated point of contact (preferably an instructor or committee member from the club if one is attending) – we’ll keep name/phone number/room number of that contact on hand for our event staff should any problems arise.
Code of Conduct
Medieval Combat Group operates a zero tolerance policy with regards to aggressive, violent, intimidating, harassing, or abusive behaviour, or unwanted attention or advances, or towards any of our members or anyone in attendance at any of our events.
- Harassment, defined as any behaviour which is directed at an individual or group which is non-consensual. This includes sexual harassment such as cat-calling, groping or stalking.
- Abuse, covering both verbal and physical abuse, including sexual assault, which results in an individual or group feeling intimidated or unsafe.
- Discrimination, including verbal and physical expressions of discrimination, based on any characteristics,
- Violence, defined as any act of physical intimidation or aggression, including threats of violence.
All students, instructors, and visitors to the group are accountable for their own conduct and must refrain from any of the behaviours listed above. Bladeworks event staff reserves the right to expel offenders from any event or class.
Bladeworks aims to be a welcoming and inclusive environment, whilst still providing a setting where attendees can study and make progress in a safe fashion. To this end, we ask that all students, instructors, and guests of the event adhere to the following:
Workshops/Freeplay/Training
- All sparring/freeplay/wrestling/training/teaching must stay indoors and within the timetabled hours. We’ll not be the only people using the venue, and there is a residential dwelling just inside the gates. Keep the HEMA stuff in our areas within the times we’re supposed to.
- No drinking (or use of other substances) and fencing. The venue has been very accommodating in saying they’ll turn a blind eye to alcohol at the event for the social aspect as long as it stays indoors, leaves no trace, and DOES NOT coincide with any HEMA activities. Please note, this also includes still being under the influence from the night before.
- Arrive on time, ready to start each workshop.
- Work diligently at the content – there is no such thing as ‘This is too basic for me to spend time on’.
- Respect your training partners – they are allowing you to partner with them and drill with them, repay this by striving to do your side of any drill perfectly and safely. Keep them safe and keep your actions useful.
- Strive for good control in all of your drills and sparring. This will make you a better fencer and keep your classmates safer.
- Respect the taught content – if an instructor is asking you to do something as a part of a drill, there’s a reason. Please don’t try to work out ‘the next move‘ or respond with ‘But I could just do this‘ – if you’re unsure of the reason for the drill, please ask, rather than disrupting your partners training with what you think it should be. There’ll be time for experimentation and freeplay elsewhere at Bladeworks.
- Respect the instructors and event staff and other attendees.
- Be aware of the safety requirements for any drill or sparring and ensure that you stick to them! If in doubt, mask and gloves as a minimum for drilling, with jacket, etc added as necessary for various intensities of sparring.
- Use of loaner kit (whether ours or anyone else’s) is a privilege, not a right. Anyone abusing loaner equipment or leaving it lying around carelessly or generally not taking care of it, will find themselves banned from using it.
Venue and Social:
- Please keep the social areas and accommodation areas tidy; and whilst we acknowledge that social gatherings in the kitchen are a mainstay of awkward socialising on this island, please do try and shift it out into one of the seating areas so that you’re not bottlenecking the kitchens for everyone else.
- In general. respect the venue – we’re lucky enough to have an excellent venue for Bladeworks, we would ask that all in attendance help to keep it that way.
- Respect your fellow attendees and the event staff. We expect everyone to have fun, and enjoy the socialising and the training, and not get in the way of that for anyone else.
- Once we get past midnight, do be aware some folks will have turned in for the night and keep the noise down and all the doors between the social areas and the accommodation areas closed. We’ll ask everyone to go back to their own accommodation blocks at 2am so we can lock the various exterior doors. Each accommodation block does have its own social area, you’re welcome to sit past 2am there as long as you don’t disturb folk.
- No weapons/wrestling etc once we’re in the social portion of the evening (past 6pm effectively) or outside at any time, and absolutely no weapons/wrestling etc once alcohol has been taken. This includes boffers.
- No spirits.
- Have fun, be sociable, but take it in moderation. We should have something similar to the kegs last year for complementary refreshments for anyone purchasing a Bladeworks mug. We’ll have a last call on these each night at a reasonable hour. Anyone getting too intoxicated, we will cut off.
- If a member of staff asks you to help with something, please be helpful. Equally if a Bladeworks member of staff asks you to stop doing something, then stop.
Enforcement
We hope to never really have to enforce any of the above, in general we’ve always found Bladeworks to be a great event with everyone having fun, and we don’t have to do too much on this side of things. Minor breaches will be given verbal warnings from event staff, whether that’s disruptive conduct on the social side of things, or force warnings in sparring, or similar.
Serious breaches of the Code of Conduct will result in removal from the event. If it’s a serious breach that we deem to be serious but non-malicious (i.e. you’ve been a bit lacking in judgement/outright stupid) then we’ll remove you from the event, and we’ll have a discussion about you coming back in a year or two. If it’s a serious breach that we deem to be malicious (i.e. we’ve warned you about not doing it and you’ve gone ahead and done it anyway, or it’s something that would be considered illegal in the general course of things) then you’ll be removed from the event and permanently banned.
Multiple minor breaches will be considered a serious breach. Event staff do keep track of things, and if we’re constantly having to warn the same person not to do things (i.e. multiple force warnings, or we’ve had to stop you waving weapons around outside whilst drinking more than once) then we’ll consider it a serious breach.