At A & G Ohio ® we expect a reasonable level of behavior from all attendees attending this year’s events. Please be considerate of your fellow attendees, A & G Ohio ® staff, volunteers, A&G guests hotel and convention center staff, as well as other non-A&G Ohio hotel guests and attendees to other conventions. It is crucial that you know the policies for our convention and we highly recommend reading them over.

All attendees of A & G Ohio ® are expected to abide by the Code of Conduct. Violations may result in a temporary ban, expulsion, or permanent ban from the A & G Ohio ® Convention. Any attendee caught breaking a state, local, or federal law in an A & G Ohio ® function area or event will have their badge confiscated, as well as reported to the local authorities. The Administration of A & G Ohio reserves the right to revise the Code of Conduct at any time.

Please select from the following options to quickly navigate to a more indepth description of each.

→ General
→ Costumes & Clothing
→ Harassment & Assault
→ Solicitation
→ Use of Signs
→ Parties, Alcohol, and Zero Drug Tolerance
→ Water Pistols, Silly String, and Weapons
→ Photography and Videotape
→ Accessibility

GENERAL GUIDELINES
A & G Ohio® strives to give as many people as possible a fun time. Most of the convention is for general audiences, however some areas of the convention require a more mature audience. Please be prepared to show your badge any time you need access to convention space or events – it identifies you as a fully-paid attendee of the convention.

A & G Ohio® hopes that each attendee enjoys the fun that our event and our wide-ranging community can provide. Please consider how your actions reflect on the convention and how they may impact or affect others, and respect others enjoyment and sensibilities. Use your common sense in public areas; if you wonder at all about whether it is appropriate to do something in public, or you notice others are uncomfortable with your costume or activities, take it to your hotel room. We take pride in our appearance and we want you to do so as well while still having fun. To this effect, if A & G Ohio becomes aware of any of our attendees engaging in illegal activities either in convention space or in private hotel rooms, we will be forced to inform the proper authorities. Please refer to the City, State, and Federal laws for reference.

While A & G Ohio will indeed be taking place in a hotel area, please be mindful that we are not the only guests at this hotel. Be courteous to those around you and in turn they will do the same. Offending the hotel’s other guests is inappropriate. Impressing them with how much fun and enthusiasm we have for our fandom IS appropriate. What you consider to be acceptable behavior may not be so for others. Consideration of others is the hallmark of a mature individual and a healthy fandom. We encourage that courtesy be extended to others in the vicinity from all participants in our community.

While A & G Ohio is a convention provided to the people to have a wonderful time, there are sometimes those who do not wish to have things go smoothly. To answer such threats A & G Ohio will provide its guests with a very attentive Security team that is placed in order to protect the interests of the convention and its guests.  Security and convention staff may ask you to stop an activity or to move it to a private room. Repeat offenders may even be required to surrender their badges and to leave the convention premises. We ask our attendees to comply with requests promptly.

COSTUMES & CLOTHING
Public exposure of genitalia, buttocks or (female) breasts is not permitted. When choosing and creating your costume, please keep in mind the constraints of local laws and customs concerning public decency. Just because an anime character wears only a face mask, you may not do so. Sturdy and fitted costumes are required; you should not be falling out of your costume and it should not be falling apart around you. Also, remember to have proper support such as bras and athletic cups, especially if you plan to be physically active, i.e., dancing or running.

To serve the best interest of our attendees, there may be some times at which people should not be wearing the costume of their choosing. While we encourage you to wear a costume that is appropriate for your body type we do not enforce such a rule. However, if the costume begins to upset or offend any of the other attendees you will be asked to return to your room to retire your costume for the rest of the convention.

HARASSMENT & ASSAULT
“No” means “no.” “Stop” means “stop.” “Go away” means “go away.” If someone is harassing you and does not respect these simple rules, contact a member of the convention staff immediately so that we can address the problem and handle it. Convention staff and security personnel have the right to remove an attendees badge for not following these rules and their commands, and may eject a person from the convention. Harassment is any behavior that seriously annoys or alarms another person. This includes unwanted physical contact, following someone in a public area, verbal assaults, or threatening physical violence. An offender may lose their badge and the matter may be referred to the proper law enforcement authorities. If you are being harassed, immediately contact security, or a nearby member of staff.
Excessive noise can be found as a form of harassment. Please be courteous to others.  When exiting the convention space (making your way to hotel rooms), keep noise to a minimum. While you might not be tired/morning people, there are others that do go to sleep early in the evening. This includes Non-A&G Ohio guests of the hotel. The hotel does reserve the right to remove you from your room for excessive noise. A&G Ohio/Hotel Security has the right to dictate the level of noise inside the hotel hallways, which can lead to removal of A&G Ohio attendee badges.

BUYING, SELLING, AND SOLICITATION
A & G Ohio® does have an area where merchandise is sold, and while we understand that some of our attendees would like to sell some of their own belongings that they have purchased, we are kindly asking you not to. If you are wishing to sell anything at A&G Ohio® you must have the permission of the Dealers Room Coordinator or Con Chair. If you are found to be selling objects, you will be asked to return to your room with whatever it is that you are selling. If a second offense occurs, your badge will be confiscated and you will be required to leave the premises of the convention.

THE USE OF SIGNS
Signs are OK at A & G Ohio®! We do ask that you follow a few rules when it comes to signs. No sexuality, soliciting, or profanity. Keep all sings PG or your signs will be confiscated and/or destroyed. Repeat offenses may lead to forfeiture of your attendee badge and result in a ban from the convention.

PARTIES, ALCOHOL, AND ZERO DRUG TOLERANCE
A & G Ohio® does not tolerate or promote intoxication or the serving of alcohol to minors. Any persons under the age of 21 found intoxicated without proper guardian supervision will be reported to the proper authorities. If you are hosting a party where alcohol is being served, it is your responsibility as host to ensure that the age of anyone drinking alcohol is checked. If you should choose to use alcohol, you should also designate someone not to drink so that there is a fully competent person present to deal with any emergencies that might arise.
Minors found to be intoxicated will be handed over to the police/medical, removed from the premises and parents will be called.
A & G Ohio DOES NOT tolerate the use or abuse of illegal substances in or around A & G Ohio. Anyone in possession of illegal drugs will be banned from the convention immediately and referred to the proper authorities.

 

WATER PISTOLS, SILLY STRING, AND WEAPONS
Due to the potential damage to property, filled water guns, silly string and the like are prohibited in public areas of the hotel, pool area or convention space.

Projectile weapons including but not limited to, Air soft and BB guns must be checked and OKed by A&G Ohio security personnel. The peace bond, put in place by security MUST remain intact and in the same place at all times to ensure the safety of our guests. All weapons MUST have a permanent orange tip, no C02 cartridges and firing mechanism will be peace tied if not disabled.
There should be no weapons being wielded in any area of the convention. (Wielding includes, but is not limited to, swinging, slashing, and other like movements or actions.) Knives of any type, brass knuckles, or other street weapons are not allowed.
A&G defines live steel as any metal blade that is capable of holding a sharp edge. (Live steel includes, but is not limited to, swords of an type, maces, axes, daggers, sabers, and other like weapons.)  While “ live “ steel is permitted within our convention, for costume reasons only. Be aware that it is indeed a weapon, and must remain peace-tied inside its proper Sheath at all times outside of the appointed photography room. If any mishandling of weapons, or unauthorized display of the weapons, should occur, the weapon will be confiscated until the end of the convention, or until your departure from the convention.  No questions asked. Repeat offense will result in the banning of the attendee from the convention.

A & G is allowing steel and related items as a privilege to the attendees, and we ask that you please follow our policies on weapons within the convention space, or corrective action will be taken immediately.

PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEOTAPE
A & G Ohio® wants you to have great memories from a fantastic convention. Photographs and videotape footage by attendees are generally allowed in all common areas of the convention. When photographing or videotaping individuals, panels, events, or costumes, please use common courtesy and ask before photographing them. Please respect their rights if they do not wish to be photographed or videotaped. If someone asks or otherwise that they do not wish to be photographed, DO NOT PHOTOGRAPH THEM.

Photography or videography of A & G Ohio® events, staff, or attendees for the purpose of sale, or publication to the press is expressly forbidden unless written permission has been obtained from A & G Ohio® Administrative staff. Individuals may take pictures and videotapes for private viewing. We ask our attendees to be courteous to those they wish to take pictures of, especially if you wish to place those pictures or video clips onto a personal web page or similar Internet archive. Please also identify all images, sound bites and clips of A & G Ohio® events as A & G Ohio® events.

Attendees should also be aware that footage of the convention and attendees is gathered by staff members, including public areas, events, and panels, and may be used in a highlights tape, marketing endeavor or other use. Acceptance of an A & G Ohio® convention badge constitutes consent to be filmed or photographed by A & G Ohio® staff or approved industry or media during the A & G Ohio® event without compensation to you. Your acceptance of the convention guidelines as well as your attendance at any A & G Ohio® event, including the convention, constitutes a grant of rights to A & G Ohio® to reproduce, display, distribute, perform, create derivative works from and otherwise use any footage or parts of the footage that it affixes in any media and in any manner throughout the world in perpetuity, including on the Internet, broadcast, satellite and other transmissions.

These rules apply to all attendees (exhibitors, guests, press, or any level of regular membership). All members of the press and staff are additionally required to conform to A & G Ohio®’s Press Policy and we encourage attendees to become familiar with those rules as well.

IF YOU NEED ASSISTANCE
During the convention, comments, complaints or basic assistance can be requested from Convention Staff, or in case of more serious or specific issues you may be directed to Convention Operations (Con Ops). We will make reasonable efforts to address any problem brought to us, but we cannot address complaints we are unaware of. We will happily accept compliments as well, and if brought to Information Services, they can be relayed on to the rest of the staff at the close of the convention. There will be a general convention feedback panel at the end of the convention where we will discuss how to improve future events.

If you would like to speak with someone on the Executive staff it is best to leave a message with A & G Ohio® Convention Operations. If you need immediate assistance, please don’t hesitate to approach anyone on the A & G Ohio® staff. We are happy to assist you!

Thank you for reading over these guidelines and complying with them. We hope everyone will have a fun and safe convention at A & G Ohio® 2012!

If you have any questions or comments regarding A & G Ohio® policies, please use the contact form.
To date there is no attendee banned from A&G Ohio. If you are to be banned you will receive a reason at the event, accompanied with an email from the Chairman stating the offenses and duration of the ban.