1 Year Down: Reflections, Commitments, and Goals
On August 24 2020, the founding members of MAASIN publicly announced our mission and vision. One year later, we have grown into a group of more than 30 committed core members. We have expanded the scope of our vision and community engagement through the launch of our Town Hall series with panels on grooming and reporting misconduct, anti-racism in the marching arts, women’s leadership, and transgender & nonbinary experiences. MAASIN also offered our first series of workshops by and for community members; including an LGBTQIA+ allyship guide, trans discussion circle, and #MeToo in marching arts peer support training.
With the generous support of the marching arts community, MAASIN awarded our first annual March with Pride Scholarship. We thank every organization and individual who donated to our fund. With your contributions, we doubled our initial goal and distributed $2,000 to two winners. Thanks to the overwhelmingly warm reception of the March with Pride Scholarship initiative, MAASIN is pleased to announce a winter version of the scholarship for WGI performers. Details on how to apply and when to donate will become available soon. MAASIN members have also been active on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committees for several prominent drum corps in the activity. We look forward to continued collaborations between MAASIN, MAASIN members, and a wide range of marching arts ensembles.
MAASIN reaffirms our commitment to the whistleblower support process and stands ready to assist anyone in the marching arts community who wishes to report abuses. This is challenging work on a personal and professional level but we will continue until every circuit has proper preventative protections in place such as using Safesport. Contact us at report@maasin.net, through DM on our social media, or by using our form for support.
We have been overwhelmed by the marching arts community’s support and are very appreciative of the feedback we have received from many of you. Looking to next year, we have reshaped our commitments with these in mind. Our commitments are as follows:
Prioritize community education through events such as town halls, discussion circles, workshops, etc..
Critically reflect on the demographics of our core membership, who we serve, and how this affects our handling of issues.
Engage organizations regarding community concerns with the assumption that we all want to create a better culture in the marching arts.
In addition to revising our commitments, MAASIN members recently met to define our goals for our second year. Our primary goals are:
Developing a library of free educational materials (presentations, infographics, pamphlets, etc.)
Solidifying relationships with ensembles outside of DCI and WGI.
Increasing our social media presence.
Codifying a scholarship donation and distribution system as part of our financial longevity plan.
Recruiting mindfully to ensure the representation of a variety of lived experiences (ensemble type, section, circuit, region, as well as personal identities).
Identifying opportunities for involvement with varying degrees of time commitment.
We have already restructured to better reflect these goals by creating two new committees: Outreach & Partnerships and Workshops. We shifted the focus of Communications Management committee to be about content creation instead of event planning, which has been shifted to Outreach & Partnerships. Click here if you would like to learn more about our committee structure.
Just as the marching arts community places value on each member’s contribution, we are always looking for additional help. There are a variety of ways you can get involved whether you like to make graphics, facilitate workshops, research, budget, or engage with the community. We are happy to accommodate your availability. For more information, click here or contact us at info@maasin.net. For the most current updates on MAASIN and our planned events, please follow us on any of our social media platforms here.
Yours always,
The members of MAASIN