JordanCon Statement Regarding Faith Hunter and Richard Fife
JordanCon is aware of the statements made by Richard Fife regarding an incident involving Faith Hunter at JordanCon 2022. This statement addresses both the specific incident and JordanCon’s process for addressing attendee safety.
The Incident:
JordanCon will not comment on the merits of Richard’s allegations against Faith except as follows:
- Richard’s statements in his post are consistent with a report he made to JordanCon authorities.
- Faith Hunter self-reported certain conduct to JordanCon authorities and her public comments to date are consistent with what she self-reported. JordanCon has no further comment on the degree to which, if at all, Faith’s self-report aligns with Richard’s version of events.
- JordanCon spoke with every known witness to / person involved in the incident. JordanCon will not comment on the identities or statements of the persons JordanCon spoke to, and JordanCon will not comment on any ultimate findings of fact.
- Faith and JordanCon mutually agreed that she would not attend in the future.
JordanCon’s incident response process:
JordanCon takes attendee safety seriously, for all of our members, vendors, and guests. To that end, JordanCon has drafted, implemented, and trained its staff to follow specific incident response procedures. These procedures trigger when any attendee notifies any staff member that an incident involving harassment or unwanted touching may have occurred. The allegations of Richard’s report fall within this scope.
JordanCon’s procedures, which are publicly available at this link, are guided by several principles:
- All staff take a harassment training session and pass a test each year before they are allowed to pick up their badge.
- Investigations are conducted by experienced HR professionals.
- Anyone who makes an allegation deserves to be taken seriously and protected with whatever level of confidentiality they are comfortable with.
- Protective and corrective measures are not binary and can be tailored to fit the circumstances of a particular situation, including the desires of the complainant(s).
It is true that JordanCon does not make public statements on allegations, findings of fact, or determinations of culpability. There are several reasons for this:
- First, the obvious: JordanCon seeks to avoid legal risk, and it is the Convention’s right to avoid that risk.
- More importantly: JordanCon sometimes encounters situations in which it uncovers facts, beyond those alleged by a specific complainant, from sources who very much prefer to stay out of public discourse. Such situations can be complicated, messy, and unique. Without commenting in any way whether this applies to the incident in question, we are reluctant to comment publicly, even on cases where those concerns are not present, so that our approach is consistent. Put differently: some stories are not our stories to tell, and some complainants explicitly request that we not tell their stories. Some hold the point of view that JordanCon carries a megaphone that can amplify a call for justice. That may be true. However, there are other such megaphones and platforms. We are the ONLY entity that can maintain the privacy of JordanCon complainants, and above any policy favoring public discourse we must prioritize removing any barriers complainants may feel when deciding whether to take the risk of making a report to begin with.
JordanCon will not have further comment on this incident.
