Applications Open for Discord Moderators

• Do you enjoy hanging out in the CSPC Discord server and want to make it a better place to be? 

• Do you have experience moderating online groups or servers? 

• Do you have a solid foundation of knowledge around consent practices and how to enact them in digital spaces? 

You may be a good candidate to help moderate our Discord server! Check out the job description here, and submit an application using the link in the document. We are so excited to build up our moderation team, and look forward to what our membership has to bring. 

Questions? Email Ari at communicationsdirector@thecspc.org. 

We Want to Hear From You

Thanks so much to all the folks who turned out for our March board meeting this past Wednesday evening! We always appreciate getting to hear from the community, especially when there’s something that you’re passionate about.

If you have ideas, thoughts, or concerns, please bring them to a Board member you trust at any time; you don’t have to wait for a Board meeting! You can find email addresses on the Board directory, or fill out a feedback form and use the last question to request someone contact you (you have to provide contact info though, if that’s something you want). If you know a Board member who is on Discord, feel free to ask to DM them, and respect their boundaries around when and where they choose to discuss CSPC business. Please keep in mind that everyone is volunteering their time and can’t always be on call to handle CSPC business immediately, and everyone is doing their best to respond to things in a timely manner.

Lastly, if you have reached out and feel you’re not being heard, please email the Board President directly at Jadzia@thecspc.org. Thank you to everyone for your contributions and ideas for making our community a better place! 

Call for Community Resource Articles

Hi all, Ari here (your Communications Director). I’ve been hearing a call for more community resources to be made available online around various topics including how to vet play partners, ways to practice consent, and sexual health. I want to take this opportunity to tap into the vast knowledge of this community and start building that up! To that end, I want to start collecting articles written by the CSPC membership, for the CSPC membership (and also people who happen to come across our website). 

If you have a topic that you’re knowledgeable on, an experience you had (good or bad) and how you dealt with it, or any information that you think could serve the community, please write it up and send it to communicationsdirector@thecspc.org. If you’ve written up any extensive responses to questions on Discord and just want to copy and paste that into an article, do that!  

Logistics:

A name of your choosing will be attached to the piece, and it will live on our website and appear in the next newsletter following the submission’s approval. Please don’t name anyone other than yourself in these pieces (Person A and Person B are great ways to anonymize stories!). As consent is revocable, if an article of yours is posted and you want us to remove it, just email and we’ll take it down within three days. 

Questions? Comments? Email!

Changes for New Member Orientation offerings

We have made some adjustments to when we offer New Member Orientation based on community feedback, volunteer availability, and event host suggestions. 

Beginning in April, both Power Play Mixed-Tape and The Grind events will not include a New Member Orientation (NMO). As a result, these parties will begin one hour earlier and end one hour earlier. The Board is also looking at possibilities for holding in-person NMOs that may run in conjunction with our non-play weeknight events, however this has not been finalized yet and will largely depend on volunteer ability to support a weeknight NMO. 

If you are interested in becoming a NMO leader, please email volunteerliaison@thecspc.org to get more information!

Frolic 2025 Hiatus

The Frolic, a week-long camping event traditionally held in August, is going to be on hiatus for 2025. This event is a massive undertaking, requiring very dedicated Directors and a large volunteer team to work on putting it together for months prior to the event and a lot of hard work during the event to ensure it goes smoothly. In 2025 we don’t have any past Frolic Directors able to run this team, and frankly it’s too large of a project at this point to leave to unseasoned volunteers. 

There will be work done on The Frolic this year, however—we will be reviewing documentation from last year and taking some time to work on ways we can make the event more sustainable and able to be recreated. The Board is in full support of The Frolic team taking this year to regroup and make The Frolic even better going forward.

We’re sad to not be holding this incredible event in 2025, but we also recognize the need to take a step back and put some further structure in place before holding The Frolic again. Any questions or concerns about this can be directed to the CSPC feedback form, where comments are reviewed by volunteers on a regular basis.

Phase One of the Volunteer Appreciation Program: Event Coordinator Perks

Without Volunteers, there would be no Center for Sex Positive Culture. We are a nonprofit run by Members, for Members.

For quite some time the Board has been working behind the scenes to develop a Volunteer Appreciation Program that takes into account the needs of individual Volunteers as well as the needs of the organization as a whole. Part of the program involves offering Volunteer perks!

Establishing, offering, and implementing perks is a difficult task, especially when factoring in the tax and legal implications to which we are all bound. A comprehensive plan involving perks takes many things into account and requires a multi-prong strategy and cannot be a matter of simply handing out free tickets. 

The Board of Directors passed a motion at the 1/8/25 Board Meeting to implement the first round of perks! This begins a gradual yet immediate rollout. A gradual rollout allows for an expedited initial implementation, provides opportunities to assess its efficacy, and allows for easier adjustments over time. Due to persistent difficulty in staffing Event Coordinator shifts, especially Closing EC shifts, ECs will be the first to receive perks. These perks will be implemented no later than March 1st but retroactive to shifts dating back through to the start of 2025:

Opening EC

• Free admission to events at which they volunteer

• Invitations to Volunteer appreciation events

• Swag distributed at those events

• Additional swag options

• 20% off tickets 

• Free, last-minute entry to one event that has not sold out, for every two events they’ve opened

Closing EC

• Free admission to events at which they volunteer

• Invitations to Volunteer appreciation events

• Swag distributed at those events

• Additional swag options

• 20% off tickets

• Free, last-minute entry to events that have not sold out, equal to one for every event they close

• Free event coupon code for every shift worked (up to tax limit 3-4 per year)

This is the first in a series of Volunteer benefits the Board intends to implement. Other Volunteer roles will eventually receive perks. These will not be distributed based on a simple, accumulated volunteer hour basis. Instead, some roles and shifts will be weighted to provide greater perks in recognition of Volunteer contribution and to assist in encouraging Volunteers to fill needed shifts. Look for more to come on that throughout 2025. Questions can be directed to Skitty at HRdirector@thecspc.org

Thank you Volunteers!

News From the Board - Event Staffing and Cancellation Policy

The Center for Sex Positive Culture is created for us, by us! We rely on ourselves, as volunteers, to create and run the events we would like to see. If this is news to you, please take a moment to reflect on this fact.

It takes a large number of volunteers working together to create events that run smoothly and are enjoyable for everyone. At the November Board Meeting, the Board formally passed a motion to implement the following policy. It is intended to facilitate adequate event staffing, in an organized, sustainable, and equitable manner.

Beginning January 1, 2025:

• 72 hours before the start of an event, if the following volunteer roles have not been filled, a final notice and request to fill these roles will go out to the Volunteer Google group and the Discord Volunteer group:

• Opening EC, Closing EC, NMO Leader, Opening Registration, Middle Registration, and at least one Monitor for both the First and Second shift

• Any event that does not have all of these volunteer shifts filled within 48 hours of the start of the event, will be canceled. Ticket holders will be issued a coupon code for use at a future event. 

• If key volunteers cancel their shifts within that 48 hour period, we will do our best to find replacements, or alternatively, fill in using staff who are already signed up. We will not cancel events with less than 48 hours notice unless there is an emergency reason outside of the scope of this policy.

• No one should sign up in advance for more than one of these essential shifts per event. No one should be expected to volunteer more than is comfortable and sustainable for them. No one will be pressured by leadership or other volunteers to take on a volunteer shift.

Questions or concerns about this policy should be directed to HRdirector@thecspc.org and/or EventsDirector@thecspc.org.

If this article has you thinking it is time to start volunteering, then great! Go to the volunteer page on our website to get started. If you are already a volunteer and you want to take on a new role or responsibility, please contact the appropriate lead:

eclead@thecspc.org

nmo@thecspc.org

registrationteamcaptain@thecspc.org

monitorlead@thecspc.org

volunteerliaison@thecspc.org (if you are not sure or you wish to volunteer behind the scenes)

News From the Board - Board Elections

Officer and Director Elections were held at the September 11th Public Board Meeting. Congratulations to the following Board Members and thank you for taking on a year in these leadership roles within the organization!

Officer Positions:

• Board President: Jadzia (she/her)

• Vice President: Vanessa (she/her)

• Secretary: Mina (she/her)

• Treasurer: lumen (fae/faer)

Division Directors:

• Events Director: Jadzia (she/her)

• Human Resources (HR) Director: Skitty (she/her)

• Operations Director: Vanessa (she/her)

• Communications Director: Ari (she/they)

The Board also voted on a new board member during this meeting. Please welcome Huckleberry (she/they) to the leadership team! You can read her bio here!

Have feedback, questions, or concerns? Visit our Contact Us page for more info.

News from the Board - Community Matters

COMMUNITY MATTERS

Join us in creating a Community Director Nomination Committee!

The CSPC Board of Directors is really excited to announce that we’re reviving the Community Director role! There are two Community Director spots, and they will be fully functioning Board members who are elected in by the membership at large, and who will serve 12-month terms. The idea is that these positions will enable the membership to choose who they want to represent them on the Board, and as such we want the whole process to be defined and owned by you. 

To facilitate these positions being filled, we need a Nomination Committee of at least five active members. Initially, your job will be to work together to figure out how the Committee will function, and then you’ll move on to defining the nomination process for Community Directors. Once the groundwork is laid, the Committee will gather nominations, hold elections, and deliver the results to the Board. This will become a standing Committee with work to be done year-round, but you all know that many hands make light work! 

Disclaimers: members of the Nomination Committee will be ineligible to run for a Community Director position while they are on the Committee and for six months afterwards. It is our intention that Committee meetings are open to the wider membership so that folks can watch what’s happening if they so choose, however Committee members are able to join virtual meetings off-camera and with the name of their choice.

If you are interested in being a part of the Community Director Nomination Committee, or if you have questions about participating, please email ari@thecspc.org.