Mission #004: Statement from Everfree NW

We got some feedback about our Debrief from Everfree NW.

Check it out from the page break below.





Just a bit of backround: You may have noticed in my earlier post that I didn't include any quotes from the staff directly, only through forum posts. This was because I was not able to finish contact with Everfree's Public Relations department before the post needed to be submitted.

However, since they were able to get in contact with us just recently, and are allowing us to release this statement:

"My name is Markarian, and I’m one of the main organizers for Everfree Northwest and the president of our governing non-profit. I just wanted to respond to some of the concerns that various attendees have raised in the last couple of days and help to clear things up a bit. While the response to our event—both from attendees and special guests—have been overwhelmingly positive, we are actively listening to feedback from those who came to Everfree, especially if their experience was less than satisfactory. Splitting an event of this magnitude across two venues posed a unique challenge that unfortunately caused some delays and inconveniences for our attendees. For this, we do apologize and please rest assured next year will be confined to one, larger venue.

We take issues of attendee and staff conduct very seriously and have striven to create an atmosphere where attendees and guests of all gender identities, sexual orientations, and ethnicities can feel welcome and safe. During the event, the senior staff received no reports of any kind of discriminatory remarks or behavior. Had it been brought to our attention, it would have been dealt with promptly. As for the alleged incident of assault, we found that this ended up being the result of some unwelcome horseplay that briefly got out of hand. Our staff was notified and the attendee in question personally apologized to the vendor he had put his hands on in the presence of one of our Board members. Although our event has concluded, we would encourage anyone who felt that their experience was colored by any kind of inappropriate behavior to work with us directly so that we can address these issues. Our attendees mean the world to us, and we are always looking for ways to make their experience more fun and comfortable.

We would also like to add that we are very pleased overall with the event as a whole. As the feedback comes in--both positive and calls for improvement--we're looking at it as a valuable learning experience so that we can make Everfree Northwest 2013 an even more amazing event. For me, personally, it was a truly wonderful experience to be in this crowd--both the attendees and the staff and I continue to get the awestruck observations from newcomers to the fandom at the event of how much heart, generosity, and can-do positive spirit our community showed at Everfree. Whether you made it this year or not, we encourage you to come help us grow and watch us evolve, year after year.

In the meantime, we request that any discourse on this matter be civil and that the values we hold dear as a community be respected, even when one has a dissenting viewpoint. Please refrain from any personal attacks or hateful messages toward other posters. Thank you."

End of statment. Well, I for one am glad they got to talk to us, because there's a couple things in this very statement I had never even heard about.

Anyways you can link to the Debrief here: 

http://www.fobequestria.com/2012/08/mission-004-everfree-nw-debrief.html



SEMPER FILLY!