Gallifrey One to Appoint Convention Harassment Ombuds

The world’s largest and longest-running annual Doctor Who fan convention will have an Ombudsperson for the its next gathering in Los Angeles, February 16-18, 2018. The three-day conference draws about 4,000 attendees.  Joyce Lloyd, Gallifrey One's Facilities & Hospitality Director, will serve in the role.

A statement from the organization explains:

[E]ffective with our 2018 convention, we have elected to modify our procedure just a bit to make things a lot easier on attendees who feel they need to report poor behavior to the convention. This begins with a central point of contact: we have appointed Joyce Lloyd, our Facilities & Hospitality Director, to an additional role as our Convention Harassment Ombudsperson. 

During the Gallifrey One convention each year, our Ombudsperson will be available to meet with individuals who wish to report incidents of harassment. The process will be very simple:

• During the convention’s regular hours of operation, our Member Services desk is always your first point of contact should you ever have an issue to report. The Member Services team will radio our Ombudsperson if the issue concerns harassment of any kind. Our Ombudsperson will then arrange a quick meeting with you at a private location, along with a member of our ConOps/UNIT team, to hear your concerns. 

• When Member Services is closed, there will be a posted phone number at their kiosk. Those with harassment complaints are welcome to call when the desk is closed; if no one answers, please leave a message along with a number you can be reached at, which will lead to arranging a private meeting as noted above.

Your meeting with our Ombudsperson and our ConOps representative will be private and confidential. A course of action will be determined from this meeting, and it will either be dealt with directly by the convention or, if warranted, referred to proper law enforcement authorities for investigation. We do ask, however, that you keep your issues specific to our event, and be willing to meet in a comfortable private setting behind the scenes with our staff members (instead of out in the public areas). 

Joyce Lloyd is a professional conference manager and has worked with Gallifrey One for several years.  (Gallifrey One News; LinkedIn.)