I am wondering when we, the LGBTQIA+ community, can expect any sort of response from Tessitura regarding our community concerns with TLCC in Florida next year (considering we are now 2 months post TLCC Denver and the announcement). I am wondering why Tessitura has not decided to host some sort of townhall to address this issue. I am wondering why The Board has not decided to host a townhall about this. I am wondering why there has literally been ZERO communication from Tessitura regarding this and why there has been no further communication from our affinity group chairs regarding this (it feels likes LOTS of secrecy and zero transparency is happening). I am also wondering why we, the LGBTQIA+ community are giving Tessitura a pass on this and not pushing harder for a response from them. In the tone of the LGBTQIA+ people of ACT UP: Silence = Death.
Hi Chris –
Thank you for helping us keep this topic top of mind. While there hasn’t been a public update yet, there has been a lot going on behind the scenes since you stepped down as a co-chair around the time of our last update. Collaboration takes time, and Tiffin, the other affinity chairs, and I are all working with Leadership, the DEAI Committee, Marketing, and the Conference Planning team to address our community concerns. I understand that you feel silence equals death, but just because you don’t hear anything, doesn’t mean noise isn’t being made. Tiffin and I received a draft of a statement from the Marketing team to review this week, we have had meetings with the groups mentioned earlier, and we have a commitment from Bobbi Kay to have a meeting with the public in January to discuss the actions they will be taking to ensure our concerns are addressed. There has also been an internal Tessitura town hall about this. With international TLCC’s occurring, they wanted to be sure that they could take time to properly understand what our community really wanted, rather than responding quickly and without thought.
I encourage anyone to ask specific questions they might have here. We are happy to answer any questions, however, we don’t want to put partial information out in the world, or speak on behalf of Tessitura. Additionally, Tiffin and I are volunteers in the co-chair roles. While we would love to spend all of our time on DEAI work, it is, unfortunately, not what we are being paid to do. Work and life has to come first. We are doing the best we can, and encourage anyone interested in helping us in the future to reach out about being a member of the planning committee for the LGBTQIA+ affinity group.
Jordan Edwards said:With international TLCC’s occurring, they wanted to be sure that they could take time to properly understand what our community really wanted, rather than responding quickly and without thought.
I have to take issue on this because Tessitura DID initially respond. AND with thought. AND quite a few responses at that. The response from Tessitura rang loud and clear in their responses to my tweet. To gloss over and forget that fact is disappointing since I know a good number of people have seen that tweet exchange.
It truly feels like the affinity groups are working to try to shield, defend, protect, and stand up for Tessitura instead of doing all that for US.
Hi Skypp - To be clear, they didn't want to continue doing so after our communities' reaction to Tessitura's response to your Tweet. Would you genuinely want them to prioritize speed over a thoughtful and genuine response that actually addresses our concerns?
They didn't seem to care about speed and thoughtfulness when they responded to Skypp's tweet, Jordan.
I think that if that's what you meant to say, then that's what you should have said. The initial way you said it didn't even take that event into account. I'm just clarifying that whatever they're thoughtfully trying to respond with isn't the first response they gave the public.They also lost that fight of prioritizing speed over a thoughtful and genuine response that actually addresses our concerns when they made that first response.