[*Note: "IR" indicates "incident response" or "incident report"]

Date: Sat, 4 Mar 2023 21:10:16 -0500
From: "Melissa (Arisia)" <MelissaK@arisia.org>
Subject: IRMC following up on incident reports
To: *Hobbit* <hobbit@techno-fandom.org>

Dear Mr. [formal-name]:

I am writing on behalf of the IRMC regarding 3 incident reports of
potential code of conduct violations on your part. One of these reports is
from 2 years ago. We had hoped to get to it much sooner but there was a
tremendous backlog of incident reports for us to process going into 2023.
We are sorry for the delay.

The first incident was at virtual Arisia in 2021. It has been reported
that you posted an "In memorium" statement regarding Carol London to the
official discord which contained ableist language, in specific referring to
Carol as wheelchair bound.

The second incident also involved ableism and occurred at Arisia 2023.  It
has been reported that a registration volunteer asked for your ID and you
initially refused to present it insisting that the volunteer could see who
you were. When the volunteer noted that they could not see you, you told
them to wear glasses and then asked them what was wrong with their eyes.

The third incident occurred at Arisia 2023 at the Geeky Belly Dance show.
It is reported that one of the dancers accidentally tripped on stage near
some of the lighting equipment and after the show, you berated the dancer
for putting the equipment at risk of damage, even though it was confirmed
that the equipment was fine.

It is IRMC policy that we speak with the person who is being reported to
get their perspective on incidents before making decisions regarding
disciplinary actions. We would like to hear from you about all three of
these at your earliest convenience. If we do not hear from you by Sunday
March 19th we will proceed without your input.

Sincerely,
Melissa Kaplan, IRMC

Date: Sat, 04 Mar 2023 22:55:05 -0500
To: MelissaK@arisia.org
Subject: Re: IRMC following up on incident reports
From: hobbit@techno-fandom.org (*Hobbit*)

None of those are as you have evidently heard them.

1>  In the "in memoriam" channel, I had followed a request from Lisa Hertel
to copy a post of hers to the "announcements" channel.  I took her words
EXACTLY, not realizing that she had later *changed* her own original post
and then never told me about it so I could update the Announcements posting.
It got updated later, but only after there was a complaint.  NOT MY FAULT.
Nonetheless, I had to waste a couple of hours of my time trying to explain
all this at the time, and thought the matter long since settled.

2> I did not refuse to present anything, I always expect to present ID at
Reg anyway, and I had no idea that one of the people I was talking to had
a particular type of vision difficulty so I was a little confused until that
was clarified to me.  I accepted the enlightment with what I thought was
good grace.

3> I did not "berate" any of the bellydancers.  I was concerned for her
welfare and was basically back there to apologize for the placement of the
lights on the stage in the first place, because the entire stage itself was
not in what we considered the "normal" position requested from the hotel --
forcing us to have the lights on the rear of the deck instead of down on the
floor behind it.  I made sure everyone and everything was okay; things could
have been a lot worse.  Someone clearly misinterpreted my wanting to check
up on them.

Conclude what you want, but I call bullshit on all of it.

It is this kind of distorted flow of so-called information and the perpetual
toxic blame game that is going to continue pushing well-meaning volunteers out
of the organization.  You'll perhaps notice that so far I still have maintained
my faith in the viability of Arisia, amid a sea of doubt among friends who I
know well and trust.  Despite many of them having already parted ways with
Arisia, I've been hanging in and and busting my hump to try and do my little
part of the con.

_H*

Finally, in late June, a decision got handed down.  A one-year ban on volunteering, with the specious excuse of my "pattern of ableist behavior" given.  They likely knew full well that they would be permanently severing ties by issuing this crocked-up nonsense.  Within minutes of receiving the email I had unsubscribed myself from several staff-related mailing lists, and would have nothing further to do with their petty context-distortion and word-policing.

And you know what?  It's kind of a relief.  It's not just that I can save the extra thousand-dollar-plus expenditure year to year.  I really just don't know most of the core crew anymore, and some of the few old-guard folks I do still know have expressed their own doubts about the organization's future viability in general.  Arisia has been in a precipitous downhill slide for a while, even if I've still been okay with being part of the annual on-the-ground rescue efforts just for the operational challenge.  The only thing I'll really miss is the opportunity to help the few people left in that community who I still actually care about, and maybe jockeying big box-trucks through Boston traffic.  As entertaining and productive a thirty-plus years it's been with that con, it is now dead to me, and the only "Arisia '24 pic" appropriate for this year might simply be the 🖕 middle-finger icon as it all rapidly recedes in the rear-view mirror.