Arisia

[jducoeur]

Having mostly digested the past week and a half of controversy, here's my personal take. I don't expect everyone to agree, but for those who care...

Precis, for those who haven't been watching the firestorm play out in real time: about ten days ago, Crystal (who I've known for many years) made public her history with the then-current President of Arisia Corporate, and the ways in which the convention had failed to properly handle the matter. The world basically exploded. Here are the official communications on the matter, which basically boil down to:

• The then-President resigned as President, was fired as Div Head and then banned;
• The remaining Board started the wheels turning to figure out a less-broken process;
• Most of the Board then stepped down, and are to a good degree stepping away from their senior positions in the convention.

At this point, a lot of people are left asking themselves whether to attend or not. I'm going to continue attending, and help running it (I'm basically a mid-level staffer), for a couple of reasons.

First, the organization has, since Crystal's post, handled this about as well as it could be handled. Obviously, things were massively fouled up before Crystal went public, but now I think everyone's cards are on the table and everyone realizes just how screwed-up it is. The people in charge took appropriate responsibility for letting it go off the rails, and minds are concentrated on it.

Frankly, we're at an inflection point. We've just lost a bunch of senior staff, including most of the top of the corporation, and those positions need to be filled. I think the folks who are running for those positions are very well aware of what needs work, and have a lot of sincere drive to do it.

Arisia is going to change as a result of this mess. Much of the discussion has viewed Arisia as this sinister little in-group, but that's just plain nonsense -- it's actually a very large community, mostly made up of good people; frankly, it's one of the most socially conscious conventions around. It's not a coincidence that things played out as they did: in many organizations, the people at the top would circle the wagons and deny everything. I was glad to see folks instead accept responsibility and make way for others to make things better.

So what happens now? We have the best chance of growing into something better if we have good people involved. So I'm hoping that many of the folks who really care about this stuff stick around: we need that in our DNA if we're going to evolve right.

For those who really care, the election of the new board and officers will be on November 11th, at the Somerville Armory, starting (essentially) at 1:45pm. They're bending the rules so that new corporate members can vote in the election. (Note that you do have to buy a corporate membership to vote -- that's the way it works.)

Anyway, that's my take. I encourage y'all to consider the notion that the con has taken the right steps so far, and needs help in continuing that progress, and consider continuing to be involved.

NB: I'm not dealing with the hotel strike in the above; I consider it a mostly separate matter. The summary there is that the convention will not happen at the Westin if the strike is still going on -- much of the concom won't cross the picket line. We're all crossing our fingers that it is resolved in time; in the meantime, the Con Chair is collecting opinions about whether to cancel or try to find another (inevitably smaller) hotel if it isn't.

Comments

[amethysta]

That was very well spoken. Thank you.