NAN Collegiality Policy
NAN is committed to fostering a community of respect and collegiality. We intend to provide a welcoming and supportive environment for all participants, allowing them to meet old acquaintances and make new connections in a collegial setting. The senior people present should in particular set a positive tone and serve as role models. Please help us by including new people from all backgrounds in your circles as much as possible. The study of mathematics is challenging enough - even mildly uncollegial behavior can have detrimental effects on the ability of others to benefit from the opportunities that NAN is intended to provide. In most situations, simple common sense and good judgment will suffice, but we should all be aware that our words, actions and even body language can act in harmful, if unintended, ways.
Ways you can help foster collegiality at NAN include:
• Reach out to people at the meeting whom you do not know. Try to build new connections.
• Encourage mutual respect for similarities and differences -- in affiliation, background, expertise and opinions. The goal is to make everyone feel like professional colleagues.
• Do not demean others, whether present at NAN or not, or aggressively challenge their mathematical abilities, competence or interests.
• Refrain from promoting bias and stereotypes about personal characteristics, including racial, national, religious, gender, sexual or socio-economic.
• Understand that our behavior can have an adverse impact on others, even in the absence of malicious intent.
(Freely adapted from similar policies at MSRI and UC-Berkeley.)