Membership Agreement

To ensure the safety and comfort of our community, please. 

Respect yourself and others:

Be patient with and kind to everyone.  Be courteous and respectful to staff and other club members.  Respect people’s boundaries and personal space.

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• Members live with a variety of mental health symptoms.  Please be patient with and understanding of each other.

• Don’t direct profanities toward others and be aware that excessive use of profanity may be offensive to some members.

• Act like you’re in a professional environment, because you are.  Please dress accordingly, too.  Please do not wear clothing with drug logos, hate speech, or profanity.  Your clothing should cover your private parts.

• Members come from a variety of identities and experiences, and we support and respect these identities here.  This includes always respecting and using the chosen names, pronouns (e.g. he, she, something else), and identities (e.g. lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, same gender loving, gay, etc.) that people share with us. 

• Staff members are not allowed to date or have relationships with club members, socialize with members outside the club, or participate in social networks (facebook, chat lines, or twitter), or visit members at their homes. Staff may not do business with members or lend or give money or anything of monetary value (cigarettes, stamps, coffee, cellphones, etc.) to members. The only physical contact staff may have with members is a handshake.  Support staff by respecting these rules.

• Members may not do business or exchange money or goods (cigarettes, stamps, coffee, cellphones, etc.) with others at the club.  Members may not ask for money or goods from others at the club.

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Help make this a safe space, emotionally and physically:

• Help to keep each other safe.  Please notify staff immediately if you feel unsafe, physically, or emotionally.

• Protect everyone’s confidentiality, inside and outside of the club. Refrain from gossiping.

• Agree to disagree.

• Some members of our community have experienced sexual trauma, so we work to prevent sexual harassment or behavior of any kind while we are at the club. “Hello” hugs and “hello” kisses between members are fine, but always ask permission first.  In discussion of sex and relationships, please be aware and considerate of the sensitivities of the members around you. Any kind of intimate behavior is not appropriate behavior for the club and can lead to time away or termination of membership from the club. This requirement includes people who are in a relationship with someone at the club.

• Some members of our community have experienced physical abuse and/or violence, so we work to prevent actions that may be triggering by refraining from violent words or threats, and depictions of explicit violence (e.g. in media that we watch, music that we play, etc.). In the event that we show a violent movie, we will screen it in the Club Room and post a sign warning members of the violent nature of the film and that they watch it at their own risk.

• To prevent the spread of illness, if you are ill, don’t come to the club. Wash your hands regularly or use hand sanitizer available in the kitchen and in the Day Room.

• Use proper hygiene at all times when working in the kitchen. Take off your coat and wash your
  hands before handling food or entering the kitchen. (See guidelines posted in kitchen for details.)

• Don’t come to the club if you have been drinking alcohol or are high. Rainbow Heights Club maintains a drug- and alcohol-free environment to support our members who are maintaining
  non-use. 

• Keep a low profile as you enter and leave the building to maintain confidentiality and safety. Don’t stand in front of the building to smoke; walk down the block or to the curb. 

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Help make this a fun place we all can enjoy:

• Good hygiene is important in a community setting.  Maintain good personal hygiene by taking a shower and laundering your clothes regularly.

• Keep your valuables on you at all times, or lock them in a locker. Rainbow Heights Club cannot be responsible for your personal belongings

• Help make this a fair place where you belong:

• Always clean up after yourself promptly in all areas of the club. 

• All food in the kitchen is reserved for meals.  Please do not use any food without checking with staff first.

• If you use a locker, take your belongings and your lock home with you at the end of the day. Locks left on lockers overnight may be cut.  Any items left in a locker overnight may be discarded. If you don’t have a lock, put your belongings in the Day Room closet.

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You may bring a visitor as a guest to the club up to once a month.  You should explain to them that this is a club for LGBTQ people who are mental health consumers, and introduce them to a staff member.  Your guest can come to the club only once a month and may not be in the computer room. You must remain with your guest at all times.

 

If you violate the following, you will experience immediate, serious consequences.  You will risk termination of your membership from the club:
 

• Don’t bring weapons, street drugs or alcohol to the club

• Don’t engage in any criminal activity, including theft, or the use or sale of drugs

• Don’t engage in any kind of violence or the threat of violence

• Don’t engage in any kind of sexual or intimate behavior at the club

• Don’t use the Internet to view sexually explicit images or content, including sexually explicit chat rooms

• Don’t engage in any kind of racist, sexist, homophobic, heterophobic, biphobic, or transphobic behavior or speech.  The club has a zero tolerance policy for this behavior.

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