Arcata exists to cultivate serious conversation, structured learning, hospitable fellowship, and meaningful collaboration among people of goodwill. This Code of Conduct applies to Arcata offerings, including Salon events, Soirées, Suppers, Summits, Collegium courses, livestreams, workshops, receptions, and related gatherings. By registering for, attending, or participating in an Arcata offering, participants agree to conduct themselves in a manner consistent with this Code.

1. Purpose of This Code

Arcata offerings are not ordinary networking events, ideological forums, passive lectures, or casual social gatherings. They are curated rooms intended to foster conversation, cultivation, and collaboration. The purpose of this Code is to preserve the quality of those rooms. Participants are expected to help maintain an atmosphere of seriousness, hospitality, good faith, good humor, and respect for others.

2. General Standard of Conduct

Participants are expected to:

• treat guests, students, speakers, instructors, moderators, staff, sponsors, vendors, venue personnel, and fellow participants with courtesy;

• participate in good faith;

• listen as well as speak;

• respect the purpose, structure, and tone of the offering;

• follow reasonable instructions from Arcata staff, hosts, instructors, moderators, and venue personnel;

• honor the hospitality of the venue and the people gathered;

• refrain from conduct that damages the quality, safety, or integrity of the room.

Strong disagreement is not prohibited. Bad faith, contempt, harassment, intimidation, and performative combativeness are.

3. Conversation and Participation Standards

Arcata welcomes serious conversation across meaningful differences. Participants are encouraged to ask honest questions, offer thoughtful observations, and engage ideas with clarity and charity.

Participants should not use Arcata offerings to:

• provoke for its own sake;

• derail discussion;

• turn conversation into partisan or ideological combat;

• repeatedly interrupt speakers, instructors, moderators, or other participants;

• monopolize discussion;

• pursue self-promotion at the expense of the room;

• pressure others for business, political, personal, or social purposes;

• treat fellow participants as transactional opportunities.

Arcata reserves the right to redirect conversation where necessary to preserve the purpose of the offering.

4. Hospitality, Alcohol, and Venue Conduct

Some Arcata offerings may include food, beverage, drink tickets, receptions, or venue-managed alcohol service. Participants are expected to conduct themselves with moderation and judgment. Arcata may limit, deny, or revoke hospitality privileges where necessary to preserve safety, legality, venue requirements, or the quality of the offering. Participants must comply with all applicable laws, age-verification requirements, venue rules, and staff instructions regarding food, beverage, alcohol service, and facility use.

5. Harassment, Disruption, and Safety

Arcata does not permit harassment, intimidation, threatening conduct, unwanted physical contact, sustained disruption, abusive language, or conduct that creates an unsafe, hostile, or degrading environment. This applies to conduct directed toward guests, students, speakers, instructors, moderators, staff, sponsors, vendors, venue personnel, or other participants. Participants who experience or observe concerning conduct should notify Arcata staff, the event host, the instructor, the moderator, or another designated contact as soon as reasonably possible.

6. Media, Photography, and Recording

Photography, video, audio, livestreaming, or other media may be captured at certain Arcata offerings. Participants may not record sessions, courses, lectures, conversations, presentations, or private interactions without permission from Arcata and, where applicable, the relevant speaker, instructor, contributor, or participant.

7. Privacy and Discretion

Arcata gatherings and courses often depend on trust. Participants should use good judgment when discussing private conversations, personal information, business matters, or sensitive remarks made in the room. Unless remarks are clearly public, on-record, or intended for publication, participants should treat personal exchanges with discretion.

8. Salon Event Expectations

This section applies specifically to Arcata Salon offerings, including Soirées, Suppers, Summits, receptions, and related gatherings. Salon events are designed to cultivate hospitable conversation and thoughtful encounter. Guests are expected to preserve the character of the gathering by participating with seriousness, generosity, and respect for the room.

At Salon events, guests should:

• arrive prepared to participate in conversation, not merely consume the experience;

• respect the role of the host, moderator, and featured guest;

• avoid aggressive networking or status-seeking behavior;

• avoid turning the room into a platform for personal promotion;

• engage other guests with courtesy and discretion;

• honor the event’s conversational structure and timing;

• respect sponsor, speaker, and partner boundaries.

Speakers, moderators, sponsors, vendors, and venue partners help make Arcata events possible. Guests are expected to treat them with appropriate respect and should not misuse access to them.

9. Collegium Course Expectations

This section applies specifically to Arcata Collegium offerings, including local courses, livestream courses, single-evening course attendance, and related educational gatherings.

Collegium courses are designed for serious learning, thoughtful discussion, and personal, intellectual, and vocational cultivation. Students are not merely purchasing access to content; they are entering a learning room.

Students are expected to:

• attend consistently where enrolled in a full course;

• arrive on time;

• prepare assigned readings or materials where applicable;

• participate thoughtfully without dominating discussion;

• respect the instructor and fellow students;

• engage disagreement with seriousness and charity;

• avoid turning class discussion into debate for its own sake;

• refrain from recording, distributing, or republishing course materials without permission;

• honor venue rules, hospitality standards, and course-specific expectations.

Single-evening students are expected to respect the continuity of the course and the integrity of the existing cohort. A single-evening ticket provides access to the selected session; it does not alter the structure, expectations, or pace of the course.

10. Sponsors, Partners, and Contributors

Arcata’s offerings often involve sponsors, vendors, venues, speakers, instructors, moderators, and other contributors.

Participants are expected to respect the role of these partners and contributors. Sponsor participation does not give participants permission to solicit, pressure, or misuse access to sponsor representatives or their guests.

Likewise, participants should not impose upon speakers, instructors, moderators, or contributors in ways that disregard the schedule, setting, or reasonable privacy of those individuals.

11. Admission, Removal, and Future Participation

Arcata may refuse admission, remove a participant, revoke access, or decline future participation if a participant violates this Code, disregards staff or venue instructions, creates safety or reputational risk, abuses hospitality or alcohol privileges, damages the quality of the room, or otherwise acts inconsistently with the purpose of the offering.

Participants removed or denied admission for conduct-related reasons are not entitled to a refund unless Arcata determines otherwise.

12. Application of Judgment

No written policy can anticipate every circumstance. Arcata reserves the right to apply this Code with reasonable judgment in light of the purpose of the offering, the nature of the conduct, the safety and dignity of participants, and the integrity of the room.

13. Contact

Questions or concerns about this Code may be directed to: engage@arcata.live