Arisia 2019 chair Daniel Eareckson has publicly addressed “what we are doing to make Arisia a safer place”, and artist Elizabeth Leggett announced why she has decided to remain as one of the con’s guests of honor.
Meanwhile, Brianna Wu is calling for feminists to stay away from the con, and “high profile men” as well. Nalo Hopkinson, who turned down an Arisia 2020 GoH invitation, says “There has to be a house cleaning.”
My name is Daniel Eareckson and I am the Convention Chairperson for Arisia 2019.
I have taken too long to make this public statement; I apologize for that. Between now and the convention, I intend to frequently put out messages like this one indicating what we are doing to make Arisia a safer place. Likely turning into a weekly update.
Several actions have already been taken:
– Noel Rosenberg will not be on staff and is banned from attending Arisia 2019.
– Joseph Averett will not be volunteering for Arisia 2019. I have asked the Eboard to open or reopen investigations into the incidents mentioned.
– We are reaching out to third party specialists to review our Code of Conduct and Policies regarding Incident Responses. As these recommendations become solidified, we will share them with you.
– The Eboard has approved refunds for Arisia 2019 memberships to anyone who no longer wishes to attend this convention.
I will announce more actions as they are taken; and recognize that these initial steps are not enough to produce lasting change. I encourage your input. Emailing [email protected] or [email protected] is the best way to make sure that people see your suggestions. Although there are a lot of people working on this right now, we may not be able to reply to every individual message, though each message is read and considered.
I want everyone to know what goes on in our meetings and how to be part of making things change. I invite everyone to please come to the next Arisia Corporate meeting on November 11th at 2pm at the Somerville Armory and the Convention Committee meeting on November 18th at 4pm at NESFA to learn about what we do, how we do it, and to become involved directly.
Our structure and Policies are at https://corp.arisia.org/documents. Improving our Policies is one way we can make changes last and prevent mistakes in the future.
I am personally committed to addressing the issues raised by the people who chose to come forward, and to seeing that Arisia 2019 takes place in a environment where people can feel safe. I want you all to feel that this convention is worthy of attending, that we as a convention can learn from and recover from our past mistakes, that we can improve and exceed the level that is expected of us.
Daniel Eareckson
Arisia 2019 Conchair ([email protected])
Dear Friends, Fans and Family,
This has been a very long three days.
I have made a decision. After a lot of thinking and soul searching, I have decided to remain as Arisia’s 2019 Artist Guest of Honor.At no point was this an easy or casual decision. As I mentioned, Ms. Huff’s account is both something I believe and something that is all too familiar to me. The mistakes that were made in handling this and another incident were horrifying.
I wanted to see what was going to be done. I wanted to see the actions behind the words. Here is what I know.
In the past few days the following things have come from Arisia leadership:* The person accused has resigned from being president and has been officially banned from any and all current and future Arisia functions.
* Some previous incidents are now being re-examined.
* Arisia leadership has opened acknowledged their several mistakes in this, and have announced steps that they are currently making towards changing their policies and improving their awareness of how to handle future such incidents.
* The BRCC will continue to provide training to con-staff.
* Arisia’s no-refund policy has been rescinded, allowing anyone who wishes to pull out to do so.
* They are holding a corporate meeting on the 11th, which the public is (as always) welcome to attend.
* They are reaching out to an outside company for review and assistance with the process so that there are more eyes other than just Arisia volunteers on this issue.
* As of Sunday evening I know that there are several other steps that they are looking to take, but are not finalized.In the desire to make sure that I was not misinterpreting what I was reading from the corporate emails I made a point of checking with an Arisia affiliate that what I’m saying is right. This was important to me to make sure that *I* clearly understood what was being said and wasn’t getting anything mixed up as it informed my decision in staying with, and supporting the convention.
These steps, along with the many conversations I have had with Arisia staff this weekend have left me believing that Arisia is taking this with the heavy seriousness it needs. I have faith that they will continue to make improvements to their process in the next few months and over the upcoming years.
In addition all sales of my Arisia piece featuring the jellyfish mermaid under Boston Harbor now named, “Depth” (originally entitled, “Illuminate”) will be donated to the Boston Rape Crisis Center. This includes the one issue 24”x36” limited edition dye sublimation along with the 12×18 prints. After that time, the Boston Harbor variant will be gone for good.
Thank you for your patience with me.
Light and Laughter,
Elizabeth Leggett
- Brianna Wu
(Thread starts here.)
4/ I’m also going to say, women talk to each other. We share stories. @Arisia is not a safe convention for women to attend, in my opinion.
The entire board of @arisia needs to resign, and an independent investigator needs to be appointed.
High profile men need to not attend.
— Brianna Wu (@BriannaWu) October 29, 2018
- Nalo Hopkinson
https://twitter.com/Nalo_Hopkinson/status/1056940390975123457