Statement from MAGFest
1-16-2021
tl;dr:
All six volunteer Board of Directors members have resigned, effective immediately
Three new Board of Directors have been voted on
More information Very Soon™ (seriously, though <3)
Introduction:
It’s been a wild few months for MAGFest. We’ve seen an enormous range of support, frustration, and every emotion in between, but there’s one thing that is blatantly apparent; a shitload of people truly care about MAGFest, its community, and its future.
While we are addressing everyone as MAGFest, we are also a collection of individuals who have been a part of this reformation for months now. (We’ve got the new BoD, FoM members, unaffiliated staffers, and more, all helping with this very statement.) What we would like to focus on right now is the future, and ensuring we’re all collectively leading MAGFest in the right direction. This starts by healing some deep wounds, bringing in new leadership, and being transparent as hell about everything moving forward.
What happened:
As of last night, all six volunteer members of the MAGFest Board of Directors have resigned, effective immediately. These six voluntarily resigned after having extensive, arduous, but overall positive conversations with the three newly-voted-in BoD members. The former BoD recognized there have been systemic issues within the organization; the wisest path forward is to bring in fresh perspective from inside the community and pass the torch to this new leadership. You may be asking yourself, “who are these new members?”
Carrie Snyder – President of the Board, Advisory Task Force, and Department Head of Arcade. That’s right, she’s the one responsible for those dope late night Killer Queen sessions (as well as the obscenely long lines at that washing machine rhythm game thing, smh).
Cody Wilson – Treasurer of the Board, and Finance Task Force member, as well as former Mega Man-a-Thon/magFAST showrunner. Cody’s been around since the dawn of the MAG-dinosaurs, not to mention winning a Guinness World Record by shoving hundreds of wizards in a hallway.
Jason Williams – Member of the Board, Advisory Task Force, and Department Head of Consoles. Catch him on the MAGFest Twitch with the Hard Reset Show, or Oregon Trail Tuesdays. (Dysentery not required.)
These three new members were brought on concurrently to replace the former BoD and continue to provide structure to the org. Frankly, they have their work cut out for them, as this is only the beginning of positive change within the org. So let’s hear from them directly:
Future of MAGFest (from the new BoD):
Hey MAGFam -
We know that the problems that MAGFest has, and continues to face are not suddenly solved with a new Board of Directors. It starts by re-enabling safe and candid conversation, and that’s what we hope to offer going forward. For too long, we prioritized the work of running MAGFest events over the work needed to continue our mission and to uphold our core values. We’ve let the success of our events, and the fatigue and downtime that follow, blind us to the concerns of our community.
Going forward, one of our primary focuses is to provide our community (including you) with access and space to have healthy discourse, to reflect on the past that led us to this place, and to come together to make MAGFest as awesome a community as it is an event. And maybe, just maybe, we’ll get back to changing the world with video games.
“But what about XXXXXX issue?” We were handed the reins of the board just last night, and it is immediately apparent that our work is just getting started. We’d like to spend the small amount of social capital we have on asking for your patience and trust for the immediate future. There’s a lot to digest, and we know that not having all the answers right now might not be very satisfying or helpful, but it was more important to us that we speak to everyone immediately and transparently, rather than wait a few weeks before we have more information.
FoM statement:
Friends of MAGFest would like to voice our genuine support of the new members of the Board of Directors, and the recent steps taken to improve MAGFest from the inside out. For the first time in a long time, we feel relief, and we feel hope about the future of MAGFest.
Carrie, Cody, and Jason are long-time volunteers and members of the MAGFest community. We trust them to listen to and involve the community, and work in good faith to help MAGFest move towards a happier and healthier place.
This will be a long and difficult road, but the first and most important step forward has been taken. Let’s get to work.
Wrap-up:
Even though this is a huge positive change for the organization, we’re not even close to done. There’s so much internal and external healing that needs to happen, and we just ask you all to give us time. And, again, the “us” in that sentence is the whole organization – the staffers, the new BoD, FoM members, and the community at large. Before you know it, MAGFest will be back and stronger than ever. And as long as this pandemic doesn’t keep fucking up the world, we’ll be prepping for the best Super MAGFest we’ve ever had in 2022, and more to come before then.
We love you all so much. This is a new chapter for MAG and its community, and we humbly ask you all to be a part of the ride with us.
