Meeting Information

Virtual Annual Meeting Code of Conduct

The Society for Birth Defects Research and Prevention (BDRP) is committed to providing a safe, productive, and welcoming environment for all virtual meeting and event participants and BDRP staff. All participants, including, but not limited to, attendees, speakers, volunteers, BDRP staff members, service providers, and all others are expected to abide by this Virtual Programs Code of Conduct. This Policy applies to the BDRP Virtual Annual Meeting.

BDRP has zero-tolerance for any form of discrimination or harassment, including but not limited to sexual harassment by participants or our staff at our meetings. If you experience harassment or hear of any incidents of unacceptable behavior, BDRP asks that you inform  Heather Carskaddan, Executive Director, hcarskaddan@birthdefectsresearch.org or 703-438-3104, so that appropriate action may be taken.

Unacceptable Behavior is defined as:

• Harassment, intimidation, or discrimination in any form.
• Verbal abuse of any attendee, speaker, volunteer, BDRP staff member, service provider, or other meeting guest.
• Examples of verbal abuse include, but are not limited to, verbal comments related to gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, religion, national origin, inappropriate use of nudity and/or sexual images in public spaces or in presentations, or threatening or stalking any attendee, speaker, volunteer, exhibitor, BDRP staff member, service provider, or other meeting guest.
• Disruption of presentations during sessions or other events organized by BDRP throughout the virtual meeting. All participants must comply with the instructions of the moderator and any BDRP virtual event staff.
• Derogatory comments, social media postings, text messages, emails, etc. regarding meeting presenters, attendees, BDRP staff and volunteers.
• Presentations, postings, and messages should not contain promotional materials, special offers, job offers, product announcements, or solicitation for services. BDRP reserves the right to remove such messages and potentially ban sources of those solicitations.
• Participants should not copy or take screen shots of any speaker slides or presentations, Q&A, or any messaging or chat activity that takes place in the virtual space.

BDRP reserves the right to take any action deemed necessary and appropriate, including immediate removal from the meeting without warning or refund, in response to any incident of unacceptable behavior, and BDRP reserves the right to prohibit attendance at any future meeting, virtually or in person.