I have a complaint, what do I do?
If you are at a convention, contact our operations team or any senior member of staff who will be able to assist.
If you are not at a convention, get in contact with the chair of the convention, your community rep, or the board!
- VancouFur chair: [email protected]
- Vanhoover Pony Expo chair: [email protected]
- Community representative: [email protected] or @Shakaar on Telegram
- BCAEA board: [email protected]
Please help us to help you by including information such as:
- Who was involved
- Where did it take place
- When did it take place
- Who else was involved
Including as much information as possible really helps us when making a decision!
Unfortunately due to the fast-paced and ever-changing nature of social media, issues shared on there often get missed. Similarly, we wouldn’t want an issue raised in person to not be addressed due to the fallibility of human memory. We will do our best to take notes if you give us an issue in person, however sending us an email is still the best way to make sure we have all the information you can share.
We may try to find out any additional information before making a decision, however, we are not private investigators. We can only make our decision based on the information we are provided or is shared with us.
Complaints are confidential and we do not share information we feel could be used to identify the complainant!
I sent a complaint, now what?
As we are all volunteers we can’t promise an instant reply. However, We will do our best to get back to you within 72 hours. If you don’t hear back from us within 72 hours, don’t despair! Please feel free to send us a reminder or give us a bit more time to get back to you.
Due to the nature of many of the emails we receive, we often can’t provide a definitive response instantly. Your complaint will be added to our agenda for our next meeting where we will discuss the issue you inquire about and do our best to determine how best to use that information to better our events.
If your issue is of a personal nature or is about a specific individual, you may not be notified of the decision we make. We do our best to protect the personal information of each of our attendees and feel that confirming or denying an accusation would be sharing information of a personal nature without consent. This doesn’t mean we haven’t done anything or are ignoring you!
I want to suggest something or have a question, what do I do?
Send us an email or reach out to your community representative! We are always happy to hear new ideas or how we can improve our events. Similarly, we’re happy to answer any questions you may have to the best of our ability.
What does the board consider ‘bannable’?
The board is not the furry police and makes its decisions based on ensuring the safety of the event and attendees. This includes but is not limited to things such as
- Threats of violence
- Threats of damage to property
- Assault (sexual, physical, or otherwise)
- Harassment
The board also does not consider the following to be reasons to ban someone
- Bans from other organizations
- Hygiene (unless proven to be malicious)
- Hearsay or rumor
Criminal convictions will be reviewed based on type of offense, age of offense, and history of behaviour of community member.
I’ve been banned, what does this mean?
From the date issued on the ban, you will not be permitted to attend any BCAEA events for a minimum of 18 months. This includes conventions, meetings, parties, or chat groups organized by the BCAEA.
I’ve been banned, what now?
After the 18 months of the ban, you are able to appeal! If you would like to appeal the ban, please send us reasoning and/or evidence to support your claim to no longer being a threat to BCAEA events or attendees. With your ban lifted you will still be on thin ice, and any conduct unbecoming of an attendee may result in your ban being reinstated while on a probationary period determined by the board of directors.