Appendix A

Appendix A – the Future of BiCon document as it existed at the time of the DMP

1. I AGREE THAT BICON NEEDS TO STRUCTURALLY CHANGE, INCLUDING BI CONTINUITY

      a.   YES/ NO

2. I AGREE THAT A GROUP OF INDIVIDUALS (LED BY 1 OR 2, FOR ACCOUNTABILITY) WILL MAKE A CHANGE RECOMMENDATION TO BI CONTINUITY BY 4 SEP ( TO BE PUBLICISED TO BICON WIDER COMMUNITY GROUP BY 1 WEEK BEFORE AT MIDNIGHT – WHEN THE OWL FLIES)
      a.   YES/ NO

3. I RECOMMEND THAT BI CONTINUITY TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY AND TAKE NOTE AND MUST MAKE CHANGES TO THEIR STRUCTURE AND TALK TO THE COMMUNITY ABOUT IT WITHIN 1YEAR OF THEIR AGM SEP 2022 – ACCOUNTABILITY AND PUBLIC DECISION MAKING IS KEY

      a.   YES/NO

4. IF BI CONTINUITY VOTERS ON 4 SEP NOT AGREE WITH THE CHANGES ABOVE, THEN WE RECOMMEND IT DISBAND AND THE MONEY BE GIVEN TO EITHER EXISTING BI ORGS, OR TO A NEW BI COMMUNITY ORG TO BE VOTED DIRECTLY FROM THE COMMUNITY WITH FULL ACCOUNTABILITY (BI CONTINUITY MUST NOT RETAIN THE POT OF MONEY IF THEY VOTE TO KEEP THE POWER STRUCTURE THE SAME)

      a.   YES/NO

5. IF BI CONTINUITY DOES VOTE YES, BUT DOES NOT ACHIEVE THESE CHANGES WITHIN THE YEAR, OR MAKE SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS (AS DECIDED BY BICON COMMUNITY), WE RECOMMEND IT DISBAND AND THE MONEY GIVEN TO A EXISTING/ OR A NEW BI COMMUNITY ORG AS ABOVE (BI CONTINUITY MUST NOT RETAIN THE POT OF MONEY IF THEY FAIL TO IMPLEMENT CHANGE IN THEIR POWER STRUCTURE)

      YES/NO

6. I AGREE THAT IF WE CANNOT DECIDE/VOTE ANY OF THESE ISSUES TODAY, A GROUP OF INDIVIDUALS (LED AS ABOVE), FROM WITHIN THE BICON COMMUNITY CAN SET UP AN EGM/AGM OR OTHER EMERGENCY DMP TO GET THESE VOTED ON BEFORE THE END OF 2022, PENDING THE BI CONTINUITY AGM RESULTS.

      YES/NO

(this is a catch all so we don’t end up waiting until a year minimum… or whenever the next bicon event will actually be, to hold accountable the charity bi continuity accountable for change in its structure via DMP votes.. if DMP votes is the vehicle we must use. Basically I don’t want us stuck making changes to power structure because of bureaucracy, so giving ‘power’ via this vote/question for people to hold an extra meeting much sooner makes sense – and in the longer term, ‘bureaucratic’ or ‘protection of power’ type rules should definitely be reviewed and simplified).

So how did we get here?

Bi continuity was set up to look after the money between Bicon events. It’s had mission creep over the years, but does not involve itself in the running of the events or the other ‘team’ matters. They are not actually accountable to anyone except their own ‘members’ who must apply to become a member of bi continuity. They do not legally have to take any notice of the bicon community dmp votes or wishes, which (although historical reasons exist for this), is a very unethical set up.

The bicon team (who runs the event + any other stuff they choose to do) changes every year, locations change every year. This system has perpetuated volunteer burnout, systemic racism and ableism, and generally is not sustainable, ethical or kind.

There’s a shortage of people willing to volunteer to be on teams partially due to spoons, partially due to understanding what that is/what it involves and this means without serious change bicon is unsustainable.

This system cannot continue – these power structures are unacceptable and both actively and passively cause harm to attendees and volunteers alike.

 

For the bicon community – each year mistakes happen over and over again (see the recent trouble with actually getting carers written into the guidelines formally. This person had to raise this at 4 years events, nobody of whom had sat down and told them why this was and why they had to keep raising this discriminatory issue, and how to get it written into the guidelines until 2021), and the teams do not carry forward the knowledge and learning from each year. Experience is lost and the passive ‘it’s there if you look hard enough or know who to ask’ or ‘we put it on a website’ style of knowledge management does not work. We need active care, promotion and responsibility for some factors of bicon year round (anti racism, ableism i.e. appropriate venue search and scoping project etc).

If we say bicon is ‘just an event’ therefore doesn’t need to have responsibility for things like ableism or anti racism, I would just mention that even private sector corporations have corporate social responsibility policies – how does an event (or bi continuity the charity) with a large community in an underrepresented and often discriminated against demographic believe that they have no moral or social equivalent for this responsibility?

So what could the future look like?

I need to encourage us, with the short space of time we have not to pull apart small differences in possible structural changes – or to say ‘that won’t work for me because X’, but instead to group together and give trust to the new group of people carrying forward this change. We cannot all have the detail to discuss today and still maintain the changes in hierarchy and power that we need to establish.

The new group of people can look into factors in much more detail, communicate regularly and be accountable to the bicon community, and to hold regular consultation meetings whilst moving this structural change forward. And we must both trust them to do that, and hold them respectfully and kindly accountable.

The important part is that any of these ideas below will require huge structural change and influx of new ideas/volunteers to both bi continuity and to the bicon ‘teams’ themselves (if that grouping of volunteers still continues to exist on its own). And today we should agree the change is needed, and that we will work together to move this forward in good faith.

The new group can prioritise, using feedback from the bicon community around the main areas of priority – and invite a more continuous model of bicon engagement – ensuring regular comms.

PLEASE ADD IDEAS TO THESE LISTS! Pop them in comments at the side and I’ll add in.

1. Structural changes to “people” side and “event”. Non-exhaustive – teams and bi continuity
    a.     have people ‘carry across’ between years to pass on knowledge and understanding – and formally agree to this when taking on the roles
    b.     Change to having people in bi continuity responsible for main areas of roles (ie one person has overall responsibility and can give advice etc on anti racism, one looks after ableism. They advise, help teams and can intervene if there are issues)
    c.     Minimise onerous tasks – ie have continuous bank account over 2/3 years/enabling one person to carry on and others to be added/removed – get ‘multi year’ volunteers to do these tasks and help the teams etc
    d.     having a public task list where people can see what needs doing and when and understand the tasks etc more clearly so they know what they’re volunteering for and it’s demystified a bit
    e.     ‘Public’ recorded or available meetings for people to see attend/watch recording of to hear the tasks discussed and what’s going on
    f.     Different groups of volunteers working on different tasks to enable those with different working styles and needs to contribute in accessible ways for them
    g.     Easily advertised roles with fixed tasks and fixed time periods for small tasks
    h.     More care and support from bi continuity members to help teams through issues and setting things up
    i.     Extra team set up between bi continuity and the event teams to help – but who have responsibility to intervene if something going wrong and flag up for action
    j.     Changes to roles/times instead of the whole job being advertised (IE I am access manger, you are access officers x 3 and I train you in pre event, you in during event, you in post event access etc – so split the role into 3 where we can cross skill)
    k.     Traineeships for people working underneath someone with experience who still holds ‘accountability’ but makes a safer, more caring space for people to learn and practice their skills
    l.     Making lists of those with skills and capabilities so teams can ask for advise – skills database (ie who knows about roof collapse?)
    m.     No more groups taking on roles and diffusing responsibility – accountable individuals with teams to support (role must be to individual or individually accountable somehow, and absolutely clear what that person is expected to do and how/why)
    n.     Move the DMP away from bicon so it’s online/aside from the meeting and encourages people
    o.     One day events
    p.     Non-accom events
    q.     Smaller more regional events
    r.     Does it matter if this is a team responsibility? No – it’s a community responsibility to be socially responsible in many ways -what the “team” does VS what “ continuity” does is distracting from the main issue – better to agree what we want/main aims and work together rather than argue whose piece of the pie is which – and argue who *doesn’t* have capacity… better to decide what we want and organise around that then make the roles and factors we need to support it and do our best- don’t put structures in and then defend them.
    s.     Change bi continuity constitution to include other responsibilities than money
    t.     Dissolve bi continuity and start again – Start from a social responsibility of bicon standpoint and build up – who are we and what do we want to be known for?
    u.     Find skills and expertise outside of bicon community to come in and take part in bi continuity trustees ‘outside in’ experience
    v.     Plan how to ethically use the money while retaining a post – needs some predictive planning etc
    w.     Enliven the community about the DMP and their roles – have someone whose role it is to communicate and invite opinions it is possible! Look at 2020/21
    x.     Hire a person to do the event running itself – bicon community concentrate on the social/ethical roles (costed as an extra £20 a ticket on annualised hours contract worker…not employee. KG has experience in this)
    y.     Take away any roles on committees where it’s advertised as ‘but don’t worry you don’t have to do much’ power holding without action or accountability is unfair
    z.     Train 2 or 3 people in each expertise area to avoid single point of failure systems and unfair pressure on certain volunteers
    aa.     Access team/group to do audit of UK venues and find anything better than 4 rooms for disabled people. Report back to group.
    bb.     Racism training to be reviewed, updated where necessary and community learning events encouraged and held regularly to embed the learning. It’s not a ‘one and done’
    cc.    Ensure anti racism 101 training continue so we do not allow new people who do not agree with our ethos to arrive and turn the tide of change back
    Dd.     Person to be responsible for comms to the community – to help the teams if they are too busy, to make it clear what roles teams cannot do so community knows there is a gap etc.
    EE.     if teams cannot complete the guidelines for organisers, they should tell the bicon community this – ie if they cannot provide accessible anti racism training due to capacity etc or to promote DMP – this should be publicised so people can step up to help or accept the thing will not occur