Jeremias Weber (Ph.D.) is a “Drachenfest“ referee since 2002. He works as a science teacher and has training in counseling. He organises larp events since 2001 and was involved in the organisation of the national larp research conference „Mittelpunkt“. As a long-time referee he was asked to be a co-lead of the social safety team.
Carissa Donker is one of three head organisers at the „Drachenfest“. She organizes larps since 2005 and since 2016 works for the „DrachenFest UG &Co. KG“. She implemented and supported the social safety team as the responsible head organiser.
Carolin Heinrich is since 2014 responsible for referee recruitment and referee organisation at the Drachenfest. She is a qualified social counselor, working as school counselor and has extensive training in the field of youth trauma support. As an executive level organiser she was tasked with forming and leading the social safety team.
A social safety team, called “social harassment support team,” found implementation at the “Drachenfest,” one of the largest European larp events with around 5,000 participants. Such a team seemed necessary due to an increasing societal awareness of problematic social behavior and thus, an amplified demand for a solution to deal with such issues at larps. The “Drachenfest” as a unique and challenging environment called for the implementation of something not yet described in earlier research about social safety.
This paper will detail the implementation of a social safety team as a best practice example. It will consider questions of how to put such a team together and how to write an accompanying code of conduct. The paper also describes standard procedures for the work of such a team. The team performed admirably but still offered valuable lessons for improvement. The paper seeks to illustrate these lessons to strengthen attempts at implementing social safety teams at other events.
