Statement from MAGFest
6-21-2021
Holy guacamole, it’s been a minute! If you’re just now catching up, MAGFest (the organization) has been on a pretty intense roller coaster throughout the last year or so. We’d like to offer a huge apology for the lack of communication over the last few months as we worked to regain our footing. We’re hoping this update will give everyone a reasonably consumable chunk of info on what’s new and what’s next. The immediate good news is that through all of the recent tumultuousness, MAGFest has emerged a phoenix reborn, better and stronger than it was before. Or at least that’s what we’ll tell our grandkids.
In reality, hundreds, if not thousands, of amazing people were negatively impacted by the events that took place in and around the MAGFest organization, and for a lot of people, the healing is just beginning. Sadly, in addition to the pandemic, the interpersonal and cultural issues within the org halted work on our events, damaged trust, and really just messed a whole lot of things up. Coupled with the cancellation of our primary source of income (Super MAGFest 2021), this put the health of our organization, employees, volunteers, and community at risk. It will still be months (if not years) before we fully recover from this.
Here’s a quick recap of the stuff that’s happened since the last time we talked:
January, 2021: the Executive Director steps down; our project manager (employee) moves onto a new position with another company (though she’s still around as a volunteer!); our remaining employees go on full furlough
January-April, 2021: the 3 new members of the Board of Directors (BoD) and volunteer staff work to stabilize and improve internal conditions; Emily (employee) keeps the business going on a part-time basis
Early April, 2021: several volunteers banned after the events of last year are welcomed back to the volunteer community
Late April, 2021: our general counsel steps down as a BoD member (though she remains our general counsel!); two new BoD members, Eric Poch and Christina Ralls, are appointed by the BoD
April 19, 2021: Debra is hired back into her previous position as Events Director
May 24, 2021: Debra accepts interim Executive Director position
May 24, 2021: Dac and Faith (employees) return from full furlough
June 21, 2021: Return of the Beale (also an employee)
So with our employees back in the office, the BoD refreshed, and many volunteer staffers rejuvenated, MAGFest is finally at a place where things are looking positive again! That being said, we have a lot to work through and we want to be thoughtful and patient as we take steps to heal as a community. So let’s talk more about our present and future plans.
One of the biggest challenges we’re facing in the wake of all this is trust and community healing. We’ve decided to embark on a journey towards restorative justice, which is a fancy way of saying “bringing people together to have a dialogue about repair, accountability, and solutions.” Here’s a great summary of the principles of restorative justice for further explanation. Crucially, restorative conversations cannot happen unless everyone involved can come to the table, and so over the next weeks and months, we’ll be actively working towards paths of healing for both specific and general conflicts that have occurred within the organization.
Our immediate next steps are to:
Seek external parties who have professional expertise with restorative justice
Design the process based on feedback from both external consultants as well as involved and interested parties
Continue to provide transparency into the process once it’s created
So, we’re still in the early stages of healing. We stole this next bit directly from our last board meeting notes: “We’re building the plan. We don’t have the plan yet, but progress is actively being made. We recognize this is an ongoing and long road, but we also recognize we need this process, and we commit to it. This is a big deal.” (Yes, this was verbatim written in the notes.)
In the end, our goal is to rebuild the confidence and trust between the BoD, employees, and volunteer staff. This process is, unfortunately, lengthy and often difficult, so please allow us some latitude as we navigate this essential and ongoing process.
Other organizational health stuff:
Now, let’s talk cashmoney. MAGFest, Inc. isn’t underwater, but without Super 2021, we lost nearly 95% of our revenue last year. Thankfully, this unreasonably incredible community raised over $100k during the MAGFest Telethon. That, specifically, helped keep us above water during this wild time.
The money that was raised during the Telethon was used to support organizational overhead, including keeping employees onboard to support Virtual MAGFest 2021. Due to several factors, it became clear that any form of MAGFest 2021 was not going to occur; however, the funds raised continue to support extremely necessary operations of MAGFest, Inc. (it’s not glamorous, but our warehouse rent isn’t cheap!).
We genuinely can never thank you enough for your donations and support. We’ve repeatedly collectively happy-cried over how much it meant to us. Plus, we got to put beans everywhere.
In addition to the ol’ T-thon, MAGFest has been utilizing public grants and other financial assistance available to small businesses and arts organizations to assist with cash flow until we launch pre-registration for Super 2022 (oooo, spoilers!). But if you have any specific questions or concerns regarding our finances, you’re more than welcome to reach out to us at accounting@magfest.org.
For those keeping track, we have two fewer full-time employees now than we did last year. However, we’re still in lean mode until our events (and income) are fully back to normal, so we don’t intend to make any new hires in 2021 and will be re-examining our personnel needs in early 2022. We’re confident in the skills and grit of our existing employees--they’re not going anywhere! But our number one priority right now is ensuring that we have a Super MAGFest in 2022, and that we come out the other side financially and culturally stable.
Lastly, we want to talk about the board itself, since that body is critical to the functioning of our nonprofit, and since we want to prevent this kind of turmoil from happening again in the future. We plan to examine our bylaws and methods of nominating volunteers to the BoD, with the intention of re-establishing volunteer representation on the BoD no later than March 2022. We also intend to have a much better definition of Board responsibilities and boundaries by then, so that new members can have a clear understanding of their roles. Additionally, we will need to find replacements for the five current Board members, as they were appointed to temporary positions that will only last 14 months (from a start date in January 2021). All this potential restructuring may necessitate some internal policy and procedure changes, and we’ll admit that we don’t know what that will look like just yet, but we’ll be working closely with our volunteer community to make sure it reflects their needs.
“Okay, but what about Super?”
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That’s right, Super 2022 has been greenlit for planning, so we’ve finally begun to enter our normal production mode. We have no dates to announce right now, but we wanted to at least get that out of the way. So, get hyped! Now, COVID makes everything weird, affecting almost every aspect of the event. While we haven’t quite formulated specific policy changes yet, please rest assured that we will be following guidance from the CDC and the state of MD and adhering to any restrictions that may be placed on us. You can stay tuned for Super MAGFest updates on the website, Twitter, and our recently launched OnlyFans page.
Last year sucked for so many reasons, but now that we’re over the hump, our eyes are laser-focused on the immediate future – Super MAGFest 2022 and the health of our community. More than anything, we want to come into 2022 completely prepared to put on the greatest Super MAGFest ever, ever, while also making sustainable foundational improvements to the organization. Those are our next big milestones, and we’re feeling good about where we’re at.
But that future is pretty far away at the moment, and we ask anyone reading this (speaking of which…did you actually make it this far? If you’re reading this right now, post your favorite platypus picture in a reply) – anyway, we ask anyone reading this to please continue to offer your support and understanding. But MAGFest is back, and we truly think we’re in a much better place internally than ever before. (Or at least we’ll be there soon!)
Thank you all for sticking with us through all of this. MAG shouldn’t be about drama – it should be about all the fun stuff, like playin’ games with friends, listening to hot-n-tasty jams, and desperately trying to find your hotel room at 3:45am. We love you all so much, and can’t wait to see and smell everyone in January 2022. <3
