Inside AUREA - September 2023

Written by the AUREA Team
Word Count: 1049
Estimated Reading Time: 5 min

Welcome to Inside AUREA - where we tell you all about what we’re getting up to. Today, after a long hiatus, we’re talking about the following topics:

• Team members and volunteers

• Non-profit plans

• Anti-oppression 

• Project progress

• Translations and the website

TEAM MEMBERS AND VOLUNTEERS

Our last Inside AUREA was a while ago, and we have seen many changes since last year. In December, we welcomed our Administrative Assistant, Jo, who brings to the table extensive experience with administrative work in the LGBTQ+ sphere. We have also recently welcomed Akweley Mazarae back to the News Team, and we are excited to resume a normal article schedule. After a trial period, we said farewell to our Head of PR, Jordan, Organizational Outreach Manager, Fox, and Merlin, from the News Team. More recently, we said farewell to long time team members Darcy, our Editor-in-Chief, and Neir, our Treasurer. 

We are in need of several team members, including a new Treasurer, Head of PR, News Feed writers, and Volunteer Coordinator. We still are in need of more team members, and need to fill these roles, especially if we want to become non-profit and continue working on projects, such as the Aromantic Census. If you’d like to volunteer, as either a team member or specialist volunteer, check out our volunteer page to see what we’re looking for. And if you think you can bring something to the team we haven’t thought of, please contact us! 

NON-PROFIT PLANS

Last year, we asked the community for their input on whether or not AUREA should become a non-profit and how. With the input of our community accountability group, we have been planning our path forward, ensuring that we carefully consider our anti-oppressive values as we navigate the legal and financial implications of becoming a non-profit. We have decided to register in the United States, and we are currently working out how our board and officers positions will function and be filled.

ANTI-OPPRESSION

This month, we are holding our anti-oppressive organizational review. We continue to ask our community accountability group for their input regularly, particularly as we continue to develop and expand as an organization. 

Last fall, a few members of the AUREA team were able to participate in Autistic Inclusion Workshops hosted by Asexual Outreach. These workshops provided valuable information on how to support autistic a-specs and make our spaces more accessible.

Our article narration volunteers have been on the ball, continuing to support our efforts to make our news feed more accessible. During Pride Month, we raised money to support an accessibility toolbar that we will be implementing as soon as possible, allowing us to continue improving our site by accommodating a diverse range of needs that are present in our community.

During Pride Month, asexual-aromantic activist Yasmin Benoit experienced racist and aphobic backlash after serving as the first asexual Grand Marshal at NYC Pride. We reposted a statement from Ace Los Angeles, and encourage you to read Yasmin’s own words about the violence she experienced here. We offer our support to Yasmin and any other a-spec community members who were affected by this violence.

We also condemn the racist and oppressive practices occurring at the Trevor Project. A recent news article from the LA Blade stated that Black and Latinx/Latine staffers were mistreated in various ways, including unfair pay, being passed over for promotions, and retaliation for speaking out against racist practices. Friends of Trevor United union has condemned The Trevor Project for union-busting activity. (The Trevor Project has responded here.) At this time, we will no longer be recommending The Trevor Project as a resource, and will be removing it from all places where it appears in our resources currently.

We are committed to upholding our anti-oppressive values by condemning white supremacy, and continuing to learn as both individuals and an organization. We will continue to work on making our content more accessible, more inclusive, and offering a space for community members to share their experiences, while evaluating organizations we work with to ensure they also uphold these values.

PROJECT PROGRESS

The book - The book project team has been hard at work with sample chapters, and we are currently reviewing the final draft of the proposal now. While some volunteer changes caused a bit of a delay, we feel confident in our ability to submit a proposal soon! 

Aromantic census - The census team have been busy bees, and we have released the Census to the public! Over 60 volunteers have worked on this project, and we are so excited to release the Census to the general community this fall. 

As a reminder, we added a census data request form to the website for researchers who wish to work with the data we collect from the Aro Census survey. You can find links to the form on our Contact, Projects, and Aro Census pages. The direct link is here.

PrideNET - PrideNET reached out to AUREA early this year to request our assistance on some aro-related research. They asked for help developing some materials and promoting community listening sessions, which were very successful. In an email discussing the listening sessions, one member of the team said the following: “It was truly a blessing to hear and hold people’s stories, listen to folks' ideas and suggestions, and to share community”. 

We hope that those of you who participated had a positive experience as well. Their team has a loose deadline of Oct. - Dec. 2023, and we cannot wait to share the report with you all.

WEBSITE UPDATES

Our website continues to expand thanks to the hard work of many translators, who have allowed us to grow beyond our wildest dreams. Our hard-working volunteers often put out translations faster than our web development team can upload them. If you are interested in joining the web development team, please check out our volunteer page here.
Thanks to you, our website team will also be able to invest in the accessibility toolbar extension, allowing us to meet a wide range of access needs. As we continue to make improvements to the site, please be aware that some things may not work as expected when they are first implemented. If you have any issues, you can contact us at contact@aromanticism.org, or fill out the feedback form here.