Thinking tonight about voluntarism.

Specifically, the excuse of "but volunteers!! we must be grateful bc if it weren't for volunteers we wouldn't have anything!"

and specifically the way it relates to the SFF industry, which has a lot of voluntarism in professional spaces. 1/

When I heard people saying such things years ago, when I was new to the field, I had a few thoughts.

First, that just because someone doesn't volunteer doesn't mean they can't express feeling unhappy or unsafe. That's not the way this works or the way it should work 2/

2nd, if a thing is so bad as it relates to.... let's pretend.... diversity or accessibility that it keeps certain demographics out, then, uh, it shouldn't exist? Saying "we won't have this cool thing [that's functionally only white/straight/etc people] without volunteers!" er....

....if it's functionally only for a very narrow privileged slice of white/straight/cis/able-bodied/etc people then it's not actually helping *the field* to have it. This is kind of obvious 4/

But now that I've been around the block & volunteered for a few cons and a few other community things, I have some more thoughts.

First, volunteering didn't change how I feel above. Frex I still think it's fine for non-volunteers to express opinions. More than fine--necessary 5/

But I realized some things working behind the scenes. And one of those is that some organizations make the "but we don't have enough diverse/younger/new volunteers!" a self-fulfilling prophecy 6/

Namely, if you make your organization so toxic, and so resistant to change, that your newer/nonwhite/queer/disabled volunteers are miserable? Well they're going to quit. (Some of them then go volunteer somewhere else, or start their own cons...) 7/

(In fact, sidebar, in my observation the majority of people who voice strong opinions in fandom/prodom tend to be VERY involved folks anyway, even if they're not directly involved in that particular thing! but again, perfectly fine if they aren't.) 8/

But here's the thing, you can't have leadership that does its best to *drive out* newer or more diverse volunteers and their ideas and then either complain that you can't find that kind of help or get on the "well come fix it from the inside!" horse 9/

Plus, now I also know from experience that a lot of times there ARE people trying to fix it from the inside, and are getting shot down, or banging their heads repeatedly against "but we've always done it that way" or "that's not important, you're acting too sensitive" 10/

(and I am SO SO SO grateful to those people fighting for change! And to the people going off and starting their own spectacular things. Y'all know who you are.) 11/

If you want your con or fandom event to improve its reputation.... you HAVE to be more welcoming to the volunteers who will make it so.

And if you're so deep in the hole that you've scared everyone off, pay for help. You can turn the ship if you care enough. 12/

Make volunteering for you as economically painless (<-- this is important!) and as socially rewarding as possible.

Then LISTEN to your volunteers when they bring concerns. 13/

Ensure the environment is a welcoming one where people feel heard and valued. Where people won't get burnt out or thrown under the bus or be miserable.

The type of place where people will want to bring their friends to volunteer the next year. 14/

Of course it's not quite as simple as I make it sound -- this stuff is hard, and I do have sympathy for that. And change is hard, when new blood is bringing new ideas/desires that the old guard balks at. It's hard. 15/

But it's def not the impossible some make it out to be when they claim they can't get new/young/diverse help. There are plenty of resources & models to help, too.

In sum:

"But volunteers" is not an excuse.... not if you drove off the volunteers who would have warned you. (FIN)