Diversity Committee: Applicants Needed!

Polare

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The Alliance Diversity Committee recommends interventions that promote an inclusive culture in which diversity adds value to each chapter and the national organization. Interventions will…
  • Help Alliance players demonstrate respect for diverse people and perspectives.
  • Support all players’ voices and value their experiences.
  • Encourage players from every background to play Alliance games and feel safe while doing so.
If you believe you can help us make the game better and safer, we want your application. Your application should include some ideas / projects that you would like to work on. We don't need to know what makes you diverse because inclusion excludes no one. We just need people who want to work on writing recommendations for owners to consider.

Submit applications to A.mungo and James Trotta.
 
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We don't need to know what makes you diverse because inclusion excludes no one. We just need people who want to work on writing recommendations for owners to consider.

I'm happy to hear that the Diversity committee is looking to expand, however I have some concerns about the application process you've mentioned. As a player of color, it's important to me that a Diversity committee is, itself, diverse. For players of marginalized backgrounds (whether that is race, gender identity, sexual orientation, neurodivergence, or something else), it's helpful for there to be people on staff who you feel safe reaching out to, and who you trust will understand your concerns and complaints. I don't believe a Diversity committee can create a safe, inclusive, and responsive environment for marginalized players if there are not marginalized staff members who are already familiar with these issues involved in the decision making process.

Also, I'm curious to know what the role of the Diversity committee is, and what their goals are. Can you provide any examples of projects that the committee has worked on, or is working on? How does the committee currently recruit players from diverse backgrounds (or plan to), and how will they reach out to these potential players if none of them are of diverse backgrounds themselves?
 
Awesome statements and questions. I hear you and I will reply in a little more detail when I can. To your first point, yes this is a real struggle. We want a diverse diversity committee. One challenge is I’m not comfortable asking people to do free work (we get dragon stamps but not money) because of their minority status. Another challenge is I won’t ask people their race, sexual orientation, disability or anything like that. Just a personal example - I have anxiety issues and get panic attacks. I hid that for probably 30 years. I can talk about it now, even post it on the internet. But if someone had asked me about it 15 years ago I’d have been in a bad place trying to talk about it.

So just a partial answer but I want you to know that I do think about how to make sure the diversity committee is diverse enough. I don’t have all the answers. We do our best.

I will post more later but if you’re interested in helping the committee or have some ideas for us, we can also take this to a phone or discord chat.
I'm happy to hear that the Diversity committee is looking to expand, however I have some concerns about the application process you've mentioned. As a player of color, it's important to me that a Diversity committee is, itself, diverse. For players of marginalized backgrounds (whether that is race, gender identity, sexual orientation, neurodivergence, or something else), it's helpful for there to be people on staff who you feel safe reaching out to, and who you trust will understand your concerns and complaints. I don't believe a Diversity committee can create a safe, inclusive, and responsive environment for marginalized players if there are not marginalized staff members who are already familiar with these issues involved in the decision making process.

Also, I'm curious to know what the role of the Diversity committee is, and what their goals are. Can you provide any examples of projects that the committee has worked on, or is working on? How does the committee currently recruit players from diverse backgrounds (or plan to), and how will they reach out to these potential players if none of them are of diverse backgrounds themselves?
 
How do I apply? I am in the Oregon chapter. I would like to bring awareness to the agesm and disability glitches in the game and organization
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How do I apply? I am in the Oregon chapter. I would like to bring awareness to the agesm and disability glitches in the game and organization.

Since the Alliance Oregon chapter is now closed for business, you may want to check with the new Refuge org to see if their version of this committee has openings. That said, don't let me discourage you from volunteering for Alliance work.
 
How do I apply? I am in the Oregon chapter. I would like to bring awareness to the agesm and disability glitches in the game and organization
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Excellent question since Polare is no longer GM. Until we have a new GM, I will talk to applicants alone (people used to apply to me and Polare) and then have Matt and Dave submit new members' names to the chapter owners. Hava, I sent you a PM so we can arrange a chat.
 
Hi friends :)

So I promised another reply, which got delayed by a death in the family. So yeah, examples. I can list a few projects. Our big one is reviewing the rulebook. There are numerous things we would like to change on there. One of the smallest, but really important to me, I think has been in there 20+ years. There's places in the rulebook where there's a man and woman. The man is a brave fighter. The woman is a healer who supports her man. I'm not saying that's a bad story or a bad way to play the game. But what if the woman was the fighter and the man was the healer? Anyway, just a small example. Believe me, we have had bigger conversations about bigger things.

Another example is yellow-face makeup. Now we can't change these things directly. We come up with recommendations that we pass on to decision makers (like chapter owners and their voting process).
Also, I'm curious to know what the role of the Diversity committee is, and what their goals are. Can you provide any examples of projects that the committee has worked on, or is working on? How does the committee currently recruit players from diverse backgrounds (or plan to), and how will they reach out to these potential players if none of them are of diverse backgrounds themselves?
 
Updated Polare's original thread to send applications to myself and James Trotta. Just want to make sure everything heads to the right place!
 
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