A grievance is the formal name for a problem or event to which one member objects and seeks formal resolution. A grievance normally consists of one or more incidents or events where a member, a group of members, or other parties experience harmful effects (though they need not be actually harmed to file a grievance).

These incidents could involve a wide variety of issues between members, non-members, club leadership, affiliated organizations, or the club itself. The grievance process is the formal way in which we resolve any sort of problem involving UTOC.

Examples of incidents where filling out the grievance form is encouraged include harassment or intimidation, damage to equipment or personal belongings, or personal injury related to UTOC or UTOC events. 

It is important to note that this grievance process is internal to the club. If the incident surrounding a grievance involves legal or criminal issues, please contact law enforcement immediately. However, we would still encourage you to fill out the grievance form for such an incident as there may be actions the club will take as a result. If a grievance does involve legal or criminal issues, the reviewers will make a decision on a case-by-case basis on whether or not to wait until the related legal proceedings have resolved.

You can fill out a grievance form at any time, no matter how long ago the events took place. However, we encourage you to fill it out as soon as possible to allow us to address the issue quickly. If a grievance is filed long after the relevant events took place, it may be difficult to assess the situation accurately or contact the people who were involved.

If you feel as though there is a serious problem related to the club, we highly encourage you to fill out the grievance form. By doing so, you will not only start the process of resolving that specific issue, but also contribute to a culture within the club that doesn’t tolerate disrespectful conduct and help to set precedent for how the club deals with similar situations in the future. While individual grievance forms are not made publicly viewable, the club’s leadership will be able to use the records of decisions made in the past to help inform actions they will take in similar situations.

If you, or someone you know, has been involved in an incident, you might be feeling uncertain, stressed, anxious, fearful, or angry. You might feel apprehensive about starting this process and bringing the incident to light. However, sometimes filing a grievance is necessary to ensure unpleasant situations are not swept under the rug or allowed to continue.

If you decide to file a grievance, you will fill out the grievance google form to the best of your ability and submit it to the club’s leadership. The club will then form a reviewing committee for the grievance, selecting only individuals who were not involved in events related to the grievance. This committee will then complete a review, carefully considering the relevant events and how the behaviour of those involved matches the Code of Conduct (UTOCs non-exhaustive list of how we expect people to behave). During that process, the reviewers may contact you for additional information and, once completed, will contact you to let you know the outcome.

The same process will be followed no matter who is involved in the grievance.

After the reviewers for a grievance have done their best to gather information and discuss the situation, they will decide on an outcome. The outcome will be specific to each grievance. An example could be requesting an apology and/or imposing sanctions on those deemed responsible. Sanctions could include revoking membership or the privilege to visit the cabin (A non-exhaustive list of privilege lol es that the club could revoke). Other outcomes might be changing UTOC’s policies or code of conduct. All decisions made by the reviewers are discretionary.

If you need any help or have questions about this process, please reach out to the club’s directors, executive officers, fellow members, or to whomever you feel most comfortable bringing this up initially. The club’s leadership will be happy to help you fill out the grievance form if you would like.

The submitted grievance form will only be accessible to UTOC executive members. Your personal information and the contents of the grievance form will not be shared with anyone outside of the executive or the individuals who are contacted as a result of the grievance review process. Completed grievance forms will be stored on a computer server only accessible to UTOC executive members. 

For any questions pertaining to the grievance process that are not covered here, please email our board of directors at board@utoc.ca