Community Matters: Seven Things I'm Thankful For

by Eirikah Delaunay

It’s almost Thanksgiving here in the States, and I’m reflecting on the things I’m thankful for this week:

1. Wicked Wordplay–This monthly online erotica writing and reading event creates a space of shared delight in the sexiness of the written word. Free for all CSPC members, $5 for non-members. Join us for all the fun on Wednesday, November 23!

2. Community–The community I found at the CSPC has led me to my chosen family. I love the ways that we care for each other and support this all-volunteer sex-positive organization. 

3. Virtual Orphan Thanksgiving–Members of our community are gathering online from 5-7 p.m. on Thursday, November 24 (Thanksgiving Day) to enjoy the laughter and support of being in good company on the holiday. Free for all–bring your own drumstick!

4. Volunteers–The CSPC’s volunteers make all the sexy magic happen! Whether it’s serving at in-person parties, moderating our Discord server, or answering emails and issuing refunds when life happens, every task at the CSPC is done by a volunteer. Not yet a volunteer? Join us today! Many hands make light work.

5. The Fucking Fabulous Fall Fundraiser–I can’t wait to see all the yummy goodness donated by our community members when the auction goes live on Friday, November 25! I’m excited to learn more about our community members through the items and services they donate, and I’m looking forward to helping support the CSPC through doing some of my holiday shopping at the auction. It’s not too late to donate your skills or stuff!

6. Femme Dominion–So much hotness all in one space! This bi-monthly party for Femme Tops and the people who admire them is always a scorcher. Join the conflagration on Saturday, November 26!

7. Community–Yes, this one makes the list twice. Your creativity, caring, and commitment make the CSPC the special organization it is. Haven’t been to an event in a while? Now’s the perfect time to reconnect with all the hotness! Check out the events calendar here and renew your membership here. Not yet a member? Sign up for a New Member Orientation to join in all the fun.

Thank you all for all the ways you contribute to making the CSPC a beacon for consent culture, inclusivity, and sexual freedom. <3

Fucking Fabulous Fall Fundraiser–Last Week to Donate!

We’re getting excited for the launch of the Fucking Fabulous Fall Fundraiser! Our auction site goes live at 9 a.m. on Black Friday (November 25) and we’ll be taking bids until noon on Friday, December 9.

Some of our latest donations include paintings, photography, artisan-crafted jewelry, a leather kilt, and a leather vest. It’s not too late to share your skills or stuff with us–donate today!

What can you add to the auction in support of the CSPC community? Maybe you can provide a service like an hour of technical assistance (yes, MailChimp is my nemesis, okay?) or a gardening consultation. Maybe you can teach a skill like fire play or scene negotiation. Maybe you knit or paint or build amazing customized music playlists. Maybe you have amazing taste and you’re ready to let some gently-used items go. The uniqueness of each item is part of what makes this event so much fun–let us get to know you (and your business, if applicable) while supporting the CSPC!

(Donations of services that involve two-way nudity or sex acts will not be accepted, in alignment with CSPC policy.)

Stay tuned for a special email next week announcing the auction site!

Fucking Fabulous Fall Fundraiser--SHOW US YOUR....

SHOW US YOUR…. fabulous skills and fantastic stuff! Share your unique talents and terrific taste with your sex positive community by donating to the Fucking Fabulous Fall Fundraiser! 

We’re so excited to see all the cool items and services our members are donating to be auctioned online beginning the day after Thanksgiving! All proceeds from the auction will go to support the CSPC programming, and we all get to know and appreciate each other a little more in the process. 

Did you know that our own Emma Atkinson makes amazing beaded curtains? I didn’t, but I do now! Great cooks, crafters, or kinksters with a skill to share–fire play class, anyone? Coffee and a chat with a Domme? We all have so much to offer each other and our community. Share your hobbies, share your business, share your knowledge, share that leather kilt you only wore once that’s been taking up space in your closet.
DONATE TODAY and then join us online for the virtual auction from 9 a.m. on November 25 to noon on December 9. Give back to your community while shopping for your holiday gift giving–everybody wins!

Fucking Fabulous Fall Fundraiser!

by Emma Atkinson

Would you like to help the CSPC, find amazing holiday gifts for loved ones, and have fun - all at the same time?  It might sound too good to be true, but read on!

The Fucking Fabulous Fall Fundraiser will auction off all sorts of cool items this fall, just in time for the holiday season. Here’s how you can be a helper in this grand endeavor:

Donate a Service!

Do you have a skill to donate? How about:

• an hour of computer consultation - your knowledge can help with those frustrating little things that drive most of us users crazy

• provide a truck for a short time - put in the limits that you’re comfortable with 

• a meal that you could cook and provide - maybe you make a mean lasagne or curry that you can drop off, or maybe you will be the star chef for a dinner party

• ask a Domme (or top or furry or master or …) consulting - 30 minutes to talk one on one with a Domme (or whatever) and get some questions answered - you can be a mentor to someone who’s new to the community 

• a flogging, done with considerable consent negotiations 

• a custom-written story or poem

Donate Stuff!

Do you have an item to donate?  Maybe:

• a rainbow-colored beaded curtain for your living space - customized as needed

• any new or gently used toys or furniture taking up space around your dungeon 

• a work of art (or jewelry or knitting or whatever makes your heart sing) that you made

• a work of art that someone else made and you’re ready to part with it

• those sexy boots you never wear

• books that outgrew your bookshelf

• plants that outgrew your windowsill

Are you a business owner? Donate the service or product you sell and advertise your business to our community in the item description!

The link to the donation form will be added to the CSPC website soon. (Donations of services that involve two-way nudity/sex acts will not be accepted, in alignment with CSPC policy.)

Purchase!

The CSPC will post the donated items on an online auction site for your holiday shopping pleasure! Bidding will open right after Thanksgiving and run for about a week as a silent auction, similar to the Paddlepalooza event earlier this year.

You might know someone who’s hard to find presents for. You can give them an experience or unique treasure that will rock their world!  And you’ll probably find at least one item that you can’t live without and decide to buy it for yourself.  

The best part: it’s for a good cause. Your purchase will help the CSPC achieve its mission to create spaces to celebrate, develop, and explore sexuality and sensuality among a diverse and supportive community. Fucking Fabulous!

Community Matters--New Masking Guidelines

This is a reminder that starting October 1 the CSPC will be increasing our masking requirements for our in-person events. All volunteers and attendees will be required to wear an N95, KN95, or equivalent mask. We will have some masks at the registration desk for those who don’t have a mask of that type. But since we can’t always know how many will be needed, we ask that you please bring your own mask if possible.

The purpose of increasing these standards is to keep our events as safe as possible. We only have a few policy levers to work with, and we’re trying to invest our volunteers’ time and energy in those that will be most effective at preventing community spread. Our simultaneous move to stop doing vaccination checks at the door will have very little effect on the likelihood of a person with COVID walking in through the door, especially since the vast majority of our membership is already vaccinated and boosted. And since the Omicron variants (which now make up 99.9% of the virus spreading around the U.S.) spread readily among both vaccinated and unvaccinated populations, people with COVID are guaranteed to come to some of our events no matter what our vaccine policy. We still strongly recommend vaccination and booster shots, as doing so greatly improves medical outcomes for the infected person. We also highly recommend self testing before coming out to an event, even if you aren’t symptomatic, to help prevent community spread.

Changing the masking standards at events is our most effective way of mitigating the associated risks. An N95 can give eight times as much protection as a surgical mask, so this is a significant thing we can do to reduce community spread and keep one another safe. As a bonus, having everybody at our events in better masks makes the whole environment safer. When you remove your mask for a drink or a mind-blowing  scene, you can do so with much more confidence that the air around you will be safe.

You’re probably wondering what an “equivalent mask” means. We’re using that language because there are many standards around the world for masks. FFP2 masks from Europe, Korea 1st Class masks, or DS2 masks from Japan will all give roughly similar results for purposes of preventing spread of COVID-19 and other airborne diseases. So will any masks that have the following characteristics:

1.       Materials that have been shown to filter airborne particles at an equivalent rate to an N95 filtration medium.

2.       A close fit around the face (to prevent air flowing around the mask).

3.       Effective filtration in both directions (in other words, no valves that are allowing unfiltered air to flow out).

An EC at an event has the final say over whether a given mask meets these standards, but you can check in with us beforehand if you have any questions. Just email info@thecspc.org.

Looking forward to many more (safer) events, together with you all,

--The CSPC Board

Notes from the Board: COVID Protocol Changes, Other Infectious Disease Policies

As we navigate the ever-changing landscape of COVID and other infectious diseases, we continue to be grateful for all the ways that our CSPC community has stepped up to help take care of each other’s safety.

In response to the changes in the COVID pandemic and public health recommendations, the Board is shifting some of these policies. We decided at our August board meeting to discontinue checks at registration for vaccination cards, effective October 1. Also at this time, we will be increasing the masking requirements at CSPC events to KN95/N95 or equivalent masks. These changes will allow our events to be more inclusive of community members who cannot be vaccinated, while also becoming safer than before from airborne transmission.

Although the vaccine requirement has been a popular safety measure, it has from its outset discriminated against people with certain allergic and immune conditions who were advised by their doctors not to be vaccinated. We all accepted this loss on the argument that requiring vaccination was limiting community spread of COVID-19, therefore making our events safer for all at the cost of excluding some.

The advent of Omicron variants, which now account for more than 99.9% of the COVID cases in our area, rapidly changed all of that. Omicron’s ability to evade immunity allowed it to spread readily through both vaccinated and unvaccinated populations, creating an explosion in cases back in January.

In short, the process of checking vaccine cards has, due to mutation of the virus, become much less effective at slowing and preventing COVID spread at our events. At the same time, requiring vaccine cards has continued to completely exclude a small number of our members from participation at in-person events. Our policy change is to recognize this fact, and to allow access to those who cannot be vaccinated. The overwhelming majority of all attendees will still be vaccinated (as they always have been), and continuing to check vaccine cards would not change this fact.

To be clear, the CSPC Board still strongly recommends that everybody who is able should be vaccinated and boosted, as doing so greatly reduces your personal risk of being hospitalized or dying if you do become infected.

The change in masking policy (KN95/N95 or equivalent required beginning October 1) is meant to recognize the advice widely given by public health officials around the beginning of the Omicron outbreaks. Cloth and surgical masks are simply not as effective at preventing spread, and we can do better at protecting one another. KN95 or N95 masks will be made available at registration to those who don’t have their own KN95 or N95 mask.

We do allow people to remove masks when eating or drinking, and during scenes according to their need to use their mouth. We require that people mask up prior to leaving the scene space. The hope is to limit risks as much as we can, while still allowing a variety of play to take place.

There is also a lot that individual members can do to improve safety. We encourage people to self-screen (take COVID tests, stay home if they have a fever or other symptoms, etc.), and we will gladly move tickets out to future events when somebody tests positive or can't attend for health reasons. We hope that this will help us all do the right things and keep one another safe.

We’ve also received some questions recently around measures used to prevent the spread of other infectious diseases like monkeypox and various STIs. We use hospital-grade cleaner on play equipment, and make this available for attendees to use before and after their scenes. We also require that people put down a towel or sheet between naked skin and furniture, and we have all linens professionally cleaned between events.

It's also worth mentioning that safer sex practices can go a long way toward prevention of disease spread. We make barriers and lube available free of charge and encourage their use. We also encourage all members to exchange full information regarding risk factors during negotiation, so that everybody can consent to activities with the information they need to assess their comfort with the attendant risks.

With care, we can all help keep our community safer so that we can continue to meet together for sexy good times.

Stay safe, stay sexy,

--The CSPC Board

Community Matters--Updates from the Board

For the upcoming in-person events in both May and June, the CSPC will continue to uphold our current COVID precautions: we will continue to require mandatory proof of vaccination; mandatory masking except for eating, drinking, or using your mouth in a scene; and we will cap event attendance at 120 tickets sold in order to maintain space for social distancing. As folks begin to attend larger gatherings where masking isn’t mandatory (restaurants, sporting events, art and music festivals, etc.), we are seeing an increase in case counts in our region. Please consider taking a rapid test at home before attending events at the CSPC to help take care of each other and reduce transmission within our community (free rapid tests may be available here). Thank you to all our members for your ongoing willingness to care for each other’s safety and comfort.

As the CSPC continues to expand our in-person event offerings, volunteering is more important than ever! All our sex-positive resources and events are for members, by members. Involvement as a community volunteer is great for both new members and long term members. Make new friends, learn more about the opportunities for connection and growth in our sex-positive communities, and enjoy the satisfaction of providing essential support for all the hotness you enjoy as a member! Event volunteers get into the parties where they work for free, with time for play before or after their volunteer shift. For more information about volunteering, including links to the volunteer application and online volunteer orientation (on demand), visit us at https://thecspc.org/volunteering.

Now is an even better time to get started with volunteering, with online training for Registration and Monitor roles happening from 4:30-6:30pm on Thursday, May 12! 

Stay safe, stay sexy!

Community Matters: Keeping Our Community Safe(r)

As the public health guidelines for COVID-19 precautions and the conditions on the ground continue to shift, the CSPC is committed to protecting the safety of our members to the best of our ability. Ensuring that our members have full knowledge of the safety protocols that will be in place at an event before purchasing tickets is important in our informed consent-based culture. That means that our protocols will shift more slowly in practice, as we want to make sure that events uphold the protocols in place when the event was first advertised and tickets were sold.

For the upcoming in-person events in both April and May, the CSPC will continue to uphold the updated precautions announced in March: we will continue to require mandatory proof of vaccination; mandatory masking except for eating, drinking, or using your mouth in a scene; and we will cap event attendance at 120 tickets sold in order to maintain space for social distance while welcoming more of our members to our in-person events.

We have sold out nearly all in-person events since we returned to holding parties, so it is clear that our community is eager to gather, and we want to be able to welcome as many members as possible at our events. Your willingness to consider each other’s safety and comfort by supporting the ongoing vaccination and masking policies has made the increase in the number of members at our gatherings possible. Thank you!

We will announce further changes to the CSPC’s COVID protocols in the newsletter and will note the pertinent expectations for each event in the specific event descriptions.

Stay safe, stay sexy!

–The CSPC Board

Community Matters: Staying Safe with More Sexy People

As the public health guidelines for COVID-19 precautions continue to shift, The CSPC is committed to protecting the safety of our members to the best of our ability. We want all our members to make decisions about purchasing tickets for CSPC events with full knowledge of protocols that will be in place at the time of the event. That means that our protocols will shift more slowly in practice, as we want to make sure that events uphold the protocols in place when the event was first advertised and tickets were sold.

As you know, The CSPC has three primary areas of safety precautions in place for in-person events at this time: mandatory proof of vaccination; mandatory masking except for eating, drinking, or using your mouth in a scene; and capping event attendance at 100 tickets sold in order to create space for more social distance.

We have sold out nearly all in-person events since we returned to holding parties, so it is clear that our community is eager to gather, and we want to be able to welcome as many members as possible at our events. 

In the interest of serving our community’s need to connect in-person while maintaining the safest environment possible, we are pleased to share that events being scheduled for April will have an increased cap of 120 tickets sold. Vaccination and masking protocols will continue to be unchanged at this time.

We appreciate the willingness to consider each other’s safety and comfort you have demonstrated by supporting the ongoing vaccination and masking policies, which made increasing the number of members at our gatherings an easier choice.

We will announce further changes to The CSPC’s standing COVID protocols in the newsletter and will note the pertinent expectations for each event in the specific event descriptions.

Stay safe, stay sexy!

–The CSPC Board