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I am no longer VP of Arisia, Inc
Oct. 3rd, 2019 09:20 amI resigned my position effective with the election at the September meeting. I am now more free to put more energy into the annual convention, which is my true love. It's a lot of work (and boy do we need help - please come work with us!) but at the end we get to put on a fabulous event for thousands of people and they seem to have a great time. It's a real joy for me to do that.
Those of you who come to my parties know that I'm more comfortable as a host than as a guest and people who tell me how comfortable, pleasant, and relaxing things are help tremendously.
Leaving is bittersweet, as you'd expect. I will enjoy not having the added stresses of being inside the sausage factory, but I do think it's important work and I can see myself returning to it in future years. I just have a lot of convention things I want to do, first.
I think we did a reasonable job of steering the ship away from the biggest of the icebergs and even though we're far from out of trouble I was happy we made some progress. How much progress... well, that's an unfortunately open question. We had more than a few setbacks along the way and right after the election the mailing list erupted with painfully bad commentary.
As often happens with these things, I feel like I'm doing a poor job of threading a needle. On the one hand, I have a big loud privilege voice and I don't want to take up all the space. On the other hand, it's unfair and harmful to make the marginalized people carry the entire weight of discussion. On the gripping hand, it raises my blood pressure and is contrary to my self-care regime.
In the end I did say a few things. Some people I care about gave me private pats or thumbs-up on my words, which meant a lot. And also, a whole lot of Corp members let their memberships lapse. More than anything else, I feel this bodes ill because while the situation broke in a crisis fashion, it took years to develop and it's going to take more years to rework the culture. That needs people who are in it for the long haul, and not just because they think things are on fire.
I try not to judge - I know some people pulled back for personal reasons. We approved a large number of dues waivers to help those who would have had to pull back for financial reasons. But this is still a big-ass boulder and very bumpy road.
Those of you who come to my parties know that I'm more comfortable as a host than as a guest and people who tell me how comfortable, pleasant, and relaxing things are help tremendously.
Leaving is bittersweet, as you'd expect. I will enjoy not having the added stresses of being inside the sausage factory, but I do think it's important work and I can see myself returning to it in future years. I just have a lot of convention things I want to do, first.
I think we did a reasonable job of steering the ship away from the biggest of the icebergs and even though we're far from out of trouble I was happy we made some progress. How much progress... well, that's an unfortunately open question. We had more than a few setbacks along the way and right after the election the mailing list erupted with painfully bad commentary.
As often happens with these things, I feel like I'm doing a poor job of threading a needle. On the one hand, I have a big loud privilege voice and I don't want to take up all the space. On the other hand, it's unfair and harmful to make the marginalized people carry the entire weight of discussion. On the gripping hand, it raises my blood pressure and is contrary to my self-care regime.
In the end I did say a few things. Some people I care about gave me private pats or thumbs-up on my words, which meant a lot. And also, a whole lot of Corp members let their memberships lapse. More than anything else, I feel this bodes ill because while the situation broke in a crisis fashion, it took years to develop and it's going to take more years to rework the culture. That needs people who are in it for the long haul, and not just because they think things are on fire.
I try not to judge - I know some people pulled back for personal reasons. We approved a large number of dues waivers to help those who would have had to pull back for financial reasons. But this is still a big-ass boulder and very bumpy road.
