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StoryCon Policies

Tween Track
If you are bringing a group of students for the Tween track, you may choose to attend classes with your students, but you cannot leave your students once your Tween track has started. If you choose to attend the Educator Track while your tween students attend classes, please know that our volunteers, teachers, and staff will take good care of your students and you are free to attend those classes instead, but you cannot come back into the Tween track once it has started.


PHOTO DISCLAIMER 

Photos will be taken at the event. By attending you agree to have your photo taken. If a photographer is taking pictures of you directly, you may let them know you don't wish to be photographed, but group setting photos are a possibility. The images captured may be shared for Operation Literacy promotional purposes only, and will not be shared outside of that purpose.​​

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Refund Policy
If for some reason you are unable to attend StoryCon 2027, full refunds will be honored until January 7th. Refunds must be requested through the site in which you purchased your tickets. After January 7th and up until January 18th, only a half refund will be issued. NO REFUNDS will be issued after January 18th. Email us at contact@operationliteracy.com if you have questions about accessing your ticket.
Last day to purchase additional tickets is January 23rd, 2027.

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Accessibility

Operation Literacy is committed to making StoryCon as accessible to people of all physical abilities, health conditions, or impairments as possible. Here is a link to the Salt Palace’s accessibility features. If you have specific requests or concerns, please email us at contact@operationliteracy.org and we will do all we can to work with the Salt Palace to ensure appropriate accommodations are made. 

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Code of Conduct

We are an anti-bullying community. Our conference is dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), etc. We do not tolerate harassment of conference participants in any form and in any location. Sexual language, innuendo, imagery, or physical contact is not appropriate at any STORYCON events and or on STORYCON social media outlets. STORYCON events should never be used as a political platform.
 
If a participant, be it adult or minor, engages in harassing behavior, the conference organizers may take any action they deem appropriate, including expulsion from the conference.

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How to report harassment:
Reports of harassment in any form should be made to a member of our volunteer staff. WE WILL TAKE YOUR CONCERNS SERIOUSLY. For live events, look for the nice people in the STORYCON t-shirts, or for virtual events please email concerns to contact@operationliteracy.org. All bullying and harassment concerns will be reported immediately to the conference organizers.

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Statement of Neutrality and Inclusivity
Operation Literacy is committed to supporting and including all program participants, regardless of their race, color, national origin, financial status, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.

It is without discrimination that we welcome and include all participants at our events and in our programs. In fact, we love to see people with all of their unique differences finding friends of all kinds and mentoring from our programs.

We do not support one special interest group over another and foster an apolitical environment where no group is singled out for special treatment or discrimination.

We celebrate all of our program participants as they navigate the process of literacy and finding their own voices while building community with a diverse group of fellow bookloving, creative people.

Political neutrality is the best way to create an unbiased environment of benevolence and acceptance without alienating any of the people we serve.

We have no objective outside of our mission which is: to promote literacy with an emphasis in reaching youth and underserved populations by inspiring a love of reading, fostering creativity, and providing writers the tools they need to tell their own stories. Our organization accomplishes this mission by providing fun and educational programs for readers and writers.

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AI Statement
The team at Operation Literacy and StoryCon believes in the power of creation. As such, we discourage the use of AI for copywriting, visual design, illustration, and storytelling. We celebrate technology and its ability to make us more effective at our work, but will not allow it to replace the important work that creatives do to make our minds and hearts richer.

Parents & Guardians in Tween and Teen Programming

StoryCon's Tween and Teen programming is designed as a supervised, age-specific learning experience where young attendees can build confidence, make friends, and engage with presenters alongside their peers.

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For that reason, parents and guardians may not attend or "escort" children into Tween or Teen breakout sessions or youth-only designated programming unless an accommodation has been approved in advance for a significant medical, physical, or mental health need.

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Adult attendees are encouraged to enjoy StoryCon's adult programming during these sessions, including classes, master classes, keynote events, and educator programming.

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Why We Have This Policy:

  • A Peer-Focused Experience

Tween and Teen programming is intentionally designed to feel similar to a camp or classroom environment. Young attendees are often more willing to participate, ask questions, and build friendships when surrounded by others their own age rather than a room of observing adults.

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  • Safety of Youth Participants

StoryCon is committed to providing a safe environment for children and teens. Access to youth-only programming is limited to registered youth participants, approved presenters, StoryCon staff, vetted volunteers, and verified and approved educators. While StoryCon is able to verify individuals serving in these roles, it is not practical to conduct the same screening process for every accompanying adult. Restricting access helps us maintain a consistent safety standard for all youth attendees.

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  • Space Limitations

Youth classrooms are planned based on registered participant capacity. Allowing additional adults into these spaces would reduce available seating and could exceed room occupancy limits.

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  • Age-Appropriate Programming

Although StoryCon strives to keep all programming family-friendly, presenters tailor their content, activities, and teaching style to the developmental needs of their intended audience. Separate programming allows each age group to have the best possible experience.

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  • Homeschool Families

We are delighted to welcome homeschool families to StoryCon and value the important role parents play in their children's education. Parents attending with homeschool students are welcome to participate in all adult programming, including educator-focused sessions, while their children attend Tween or Teen programming.

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Like all accompanying adults, homeschool parents may not attend youth-only programming unless an approved accommodation has been made.

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Exceptions

Requests for accommodations involving a significant medical, physical, or mental health needs should be submitted to StoryCon before the event whenever possible. Approved accommodations will be handled individually to ensure the attendee can fully participate while maintaining a safe and positive experience for all participants. Any approved parent or guardian accompanying a child will be issued a specially designated badge that matches their child's badge. These matching badges allow StoryCon staff to quickly identify authorized parent-child pairs. The parent or guardian must remain with the child at all times; and neither they nor their child will be allowed to attend  programming independently.

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Questions, please reach out to: contact@operationliteracy.org

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