NIVA - Code of Conduct

Mission of NIVA: NIVA's mission is to preserve and nurture the ecosystem of independent live performance venues and promoters throughout the United States.

NIVA is a 501(c)6 trade organization, established in 2020, representing independently owned venues and promoters in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. NIVA members include independent music venues, comedy clubs, performing arts centers, concert promoters, festivals, and more. The NIVA member community consists of for-profit independent businesses of all shapes and sizes, non-profit organizations and presenters, as well as city- and state-owned venues.

NIVA members’ entertainment hubs are critical to their local economies and tax bases as employers, tourism destinations, and revenue generators for neighboring businesses such as restaurants, hotels, and retail. Independent venues exist in every state across the country.

NIVA is committed to deeply understanding the values and needs of the NIVA membership as well as all other live event industry stakeholders. Through policy advocacy, partnerships, fundraising, marketing, media, and communications NIVA aims to support independent venues and promoters in achieving maximum realization of their common goals and individual success.

Purpose of the NIVA Code of Conduct: In establishing this code NIVA is formalizing and making known common values, commitments, standards and responsibilities for the whole of our leadership, membership, chapters and affiliate members. This code also provides all parties procedure and remedy for reported Code of Conduct violations.

Failure to abide by this Code of Conduct can result in disciplinary action, including but not limited to loss of NIVA membership or termination of NIVA partnerships.

For Members of NIVA: NIVA members hold responsibility to their member organization and its staff, to their fellow NIVA members and leadership, to NIVA partners, to the live events industry and its patrons. NIVA members agree to:

Promote the mission, purposes, and goals of NIVA; demonstrate a passion for the independent live music, comedy and performance sector and the importance of those arts in the lives of individuals, communities, and the country as a whole.
Commit to improving diversity, equity, inclusion and access within NIVA and the live events industry at large.
Firmly understand that absolutely no form of hatred, bias or prejudice will be tolerated.
Actively promote and encourage integrity within the live event industry.
Treat every member, affiliate member, partner and competitor with respect and dignity.
Supply legal and fair wages to all staff as well as contracted laborers, artists, and performers of the
member organizations.
Provide a safe and welcoming environment for employees and patrons.
Use only legal and ethical means in all business activity, maintaining the highest level of professional
conduct.
Follow NIVA’s basic rule when it comes to all media contacts, to earn and maintain credibility. All
members are expected and required to adhere to the NIVA Media Policy.
Avoid conflicts of interest or any appearance of conflicts between their own personal interests and the
interests of the organization.
Strictly comply with any and all antitrust and competition laws that apply to NIVA and its membership.
Respect and uphold local, state, national and international laws.

For Affiliate Members of NIVA: NIVA is committed to only collaborating with business partners who comply with all relevant laws and regulations as well as our NIVA Code of Conduct. NIVA affiliate members are to:

Align with the mission, purposes, and goals of NIVA; demonstrate a passion for the independent live music, comedy and performance sector and the importance of those arts in the lives of individuals, communities, and the country as a whole.
Commit to improving diversity, equity, inclusion and access. Firmly understand that absolutely no form of hatred, bias or prejudice will be tolerated.
Actively promote and encourage integrity within their industry.
Treat every member, affiliate member, partner and competitor with respect and dignity.
Supply legal and fair wages to all staff as well as contracted laborers to their organizations.
Use only legal and ethical means in all business activity, maintaining the highest level of professional
conduct.
Avoid conflicts of interest or any appearance of conflicts between their own personal interests and the
interests of their organization in dealings with NIVA.
Strictly comply with any and all antitrust and competition laws that apply.
Respect and uphold local, state, national and international laws.

NIVA Events: NIVA hosts and sponsors events to support and connect its membership, the live events industry, and its patrons. NIVA events and those it participates in are to maintain these standards:

Create a welcome environment.
Promote diversity, equity, inclusion and access.
Provide a safe, harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and
expression, sexual orientation, disability, race, ethnicity, religion, beliefs, citizenship, or other protected categories.
Firmly understand that absolutely no form of hatred, bias or prejudice will be tolerated by anyone party to, participant of or attendee at the event.
Firearms, weapons, ammunition, dangerous or hazardous devices or substances and illegal items are to be prohibited.
Not tolerate unacceptable behavior. Ensure that anyone asked to stop unacceptable behavior complies immediately. If anyone engaged in unacceptable behavior continues after being asked to stop, the direct event organizer must take appropriate action; potentially including but not limited to additional warnings, expelling the offender from the event, temporarily banning or permanently expelling the offender from the venue, alerting or engaging the local authorities.
Respect and uphold local, state, national and international laws.

NIVA Code of Conduct Complaints Procedure: Any NIVA member or affiliate member in good standing may file a complaint against any member or affiliate member for failure to comply with this Code of Conduct. Complaints will not be considered from non-members, former members, non-affiliate members or former affiliate members.

All complaints are to be made in writing, addressed to the Executive Director.
Upon receipt of a written complaint the Executive Director will acknowledge receipt of the complaint,
within a reasonable time, and will detail the procedure to be followed. The Executive Director may directly address and seek to resolve the complaint with the person who filed it. A record of these actions must be kept by the Executive Director and be available to the NIVA Board if requested. If the Executive Director cannot or elects not to resolve the complaint, but finds the complaint to be of significant concern or consequence to the members involved or to the association, the Executive Director will then bring the complaint to the NIVA Board within a reasonable time.
The NIVA Board will examine the complaint, and any additional information required will be requested from the member or affiliate member making the complaint. If it is determined, at the sole discretion of the NIVA Board, to be without merit on its face, or not filed in compliance with this Code of Conduct, then the NIVA Board will reply to the complainant in writing.
If the NIVA Board finds the complaint to be of merit, and once the substance of the complaint is clear, the NIVA Board will write to the member or affiliate member who filed the complaint to communicate that the Board will be addressing the matter as outlined by the Code of Conduct. The NIVA Board will then write to the member or affiliate member against whom the complaint has been made, describing the complaint lodged and requesting a written response and any information required to evaluate the complaint.
The NIVA Board will designate reasonable time limits within which questions are to be answered or steps are to be taken. Ten business days for each step in the procedure shall be presumed to be reasonable except in extraordinary circumstances. Failure to answer such questions or take such steps within such time limits will entitle the NIVA Board to draw adverse inferences against the party that fails to comply and to make a decision on all or part(s) of the complaint on the basis of such inferences.
The complaints procedure is not intended to resolve commercial disputes between parties.
The NIVA Board will review the facts and decide if there is a breach of this Code of Conduct, and, if so, then what action is to be taken. The NIVA Board, in its sole discretion, may call the parties to a meeting to present their cases. Any such meeting will be conducted in accordance with the procedures applicable to a meeting of the NIVA Board and such other supplemental procedures as the Executive Director may adopt with advice of NIVA legal counsel; no other formalities shall be required.
If the NIVA Board determines that a member or affiliate member has violated this Code of Conduct, it may exclude such member or partner from any or all NIVA shows, programs, meetings and other events for a period, suspend or terminate membership, without refund or reimbursement of any kind or take any other action the NIVA Board deems appropriate.
If the member or affiliate member against whom the complaint has been made does not comply with this procedure or with any reasonable procedural requirement set by the Executive Director or the NIVA Board, then the NIVA Board shall be entitled to proceed without the member or affiliate member and draw whatever conclusions are reasonable from the available facts.
Any decision of the NIVA Board shall remain confidential until the later of ten business days after a written decision is received by the member or affiliate member who is the subject of the decision, or, if, during that ten day period such member or affiliate member files a letter with the Executive Director requesting an appeal to an assembled NIVA Ethics Committee, then three business days after the member or affiliate member’s receipt of a final decision on appeal by a NIVA Ethics Committee.
A NIVA Ethics Committee will be formed as needed and shall consist of two current NIVA committee chairs and three current NIVA chapter chairs, all of whom are not NIVA Board Members. These are to be nominated by the Executive Director and ratified by a majority of the NIVA Board to serve in review of the appeal. In the event a NIVA Ethics Committee member is unable or unwilling to serve or continue to serve in connection with the particular matter due to conflicts or otherwise, the Executive Director may appoint a substitute member for that limited purpose.

NIVA Code of Conduct Appeals Procedure:

Any appeal of a decision of the NIVA Board shall be heard by an assembled NIVA Ethics Committee in accordance with the procedures governing meetings of the Board and such other supplemental procedures as the Executive Director may adopt with advice of NIVA legal counsel.
A NIVA Ethics Committee shall have broad discretion in deciding all issues raised on appeal, and its decisions shall be final and binding.
The Executive Director shall designate all time limits within which questions are to be answered or steps are to be taken within the appeals procedure. Failure to answer such questions or take such steps within such time limits will be designated as no response and the NIVA Ethics Committee shall be entitled to dismiss or grant the appeal, in whole or in part, based on the record presented to it.
The Executive Director shall supply each member of the NIVA Ethics Committee with copies of all the papers relating to the original action, together with a statement of the events to date, reasonably in advance of the NIVA Ethics Committee’s consideration of the appeal. The appealing member or affiliate member shall be entitled to submit any material it may wish to support its appeal.
Once the NIVA Ethics Committee has had a reasonable opportunity to study the material, the NIVA Ethics Committee will deliberate at a special meeting.
Any decision of the NIVA Ethics Committee must be a majority vote.
Generally, the NIVA Ethics Committee will decide an appeal exclusively on the basis of the written
record. In exceptional cases in which a majority of the NIVA Ethics Committee concludes, after deliberation at a meeting, that the written record is insufficient to make a decision, the Committee may invite the member or affiliate member to make an oral presentation to the Committee and to set any reasonable procedures and limitations for the presentation.
The NIVA Ethics Committee shall have the power to dismiss the appeal, grant the appeal, modify or cancel any action taken by the NIVA Board. In the interests of closure, the NIVA Ethics Committee may not defer a decision more than ten business days, and may not refer the matter back to the NIVA Board for further consideration.
If the appeal is unsuccessful, or if the member or affiliate member fails to request an appeal within ten business days of receipt of the NIVA Board’s decision, the NIVA Board shall have the right but not the obligation to publicize the original result as it sees fit. If the appeal is successful, the member or affiliate member taking the appeal shall have the right to confidential treatment of the matter, on condition that the member or affiliate member communicates that request to the Executive Director in writing within ten business days of the member or affiliate member’s receipt of the decision on appeal. The decision shall be kept confidential by NIVA during such ten-day period.

Approved by NIVA Board February 10, 2021