In the advertisement for next year’s convention, we featured characters from Baldur’s Gate 3 in a way that has rightly been criticized by members of our community. The characters depicted were overwhelmingly white, a lack of representation that is reflected in the source material and has been widely criticized, which our entire team missed. Moreover, the one character coded as BIPOC was shown in a cage, which exacerbated the harm.

This art will be pulled from further marketing materials, has been removed from the guide that is on the website, and a new version of the souvenir guide .pdf will be uploaded to the website once we have the replacement art ready. This will be accompanied by a copy of this letter so that our archive will retain the reason for the changed art for future reference as we work to do better.

Our Creative Services and Publications teams have started the process of putting together a more robust sensitivity review system. Even when our artists are working on properties they aren’t familiar with, or when we are putting together publications on a tight deadline, we will have a system in place to keep our individual privilege from affecting the entire community in this way. We have an existing process for written copy, and it has been a huge oversight not to do the same for our visual media.

To our community, especially our BIPOC attendees, we offer our profound apologies. This was entirely unacceptable, especially in a year dedicated to inclusion. Our heartfelt thanks go out to the members of our community who brought this to our attention. Your patience in pointing out our errors is greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,
The CONvergence 2024 Board of Directors

• Will Cunningham (Activities)
• Charmaine Parnell (External Relations And Communications)
• CJ Mantel (Systems)
• Eric Knight (Facilities)
• Luis Beltran (Hospitality)
• Tim Wick (Productions)
• Courtney Azar (Administration)

Editor’s node: This has delayed updating the branding of some of our web properties for 2025, but look for those updates soon!

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This message is intended to outline the Masking Policy for the CONvergence 2024 convention. This topic is of high importance to our community. We have received many heartfelt communications looking for input and information on this subject from the CONvergence Convention Committee (ConCom) and from those who attend our convention.

Over the past several months, we engaged in extensive research, market data collection, a survey of the CONvergence ConCom’s opinions and preferences, and a review of the many email communications we have received.

After careful consideration of all of this information we have established the following policy for the 2024 CONvergence Convention cycle.

CONvergence 2024 Vaccination and Mask Recommendations

Recent masking studies show that individual masking choices have a greater impact on personal health than previously thought. Because of this it is strongly recommended but not required that all attendees ages 3+ wear masks during the convention.

This is especially important if:

• You had symptoms or a positive test 5-10 days before the convention.
• You were exposed to someone with COVID-19 within the 10 days prior to the convention.
• If you have concerns about COVID-19 and/or the indoor air quality.

In addition, if you are immunocompromised or at increased risk of severe COVID-19 illness, consider asking your health care provider for advice on additional COVID-19 precautions you should take.

We will continue to provide N95/KN95 masks for when members find themselves in need of one.

Furthermore, It is strongly recommended that all attendees be fully vaccinated.

• We hope to once again have updated vaccinations available at con on Saturday afternoon for those who have been unable to find them.
• The Bridge Access Program should now pay for vaccines for those without the means to pay for them.

It is strongly recommended that attendees have a negative COVID-19 test within 48 hours of the start of CONvergence 2024.

CONvergence reserves the right to update this policy with more stringent guidelines if the Wastewater Virus Data for Minnesota shows surge conditions at the time of the convention.

Why are we doing this?

• We now have research evidence that individual masking is effective in preventing infection.
• All current recommendations at state, federal, and global levels focus on individual mask use.
• Masking combined with vaccination is the most direct way for individuals to protect themselves from COVID-19 when opting to attend large events.
• Our research, including internal polling of the CONvergence Convention Committee, indicates that there is a strong preference for individual masking choice.

If you have any questions or comments about COVID-19 policies at CONvergence 2024, please contact the CONvergence board of directors.

We know that this information may be difficult and/or distressing to many members of our community. We want to assure you that this decision was not made lightly. It was difficult, complex, and with the knowledge that any decision we could make was likely to come with significant strife and the strong potential for backlash one way or the other.

We have made the decision that we believe is in the best interest of the attendees, members, and the recovery and continued longevity of CONvergence.

We understand that some of you may not attend due to this policy and we understand, but hope you will be able to join us at CONvergence 2024 if you can.

Thank you,

Convergence Events 2024 Board of Directors

Charmaine Parnell – External Relations & Communications
CJ Mantel – Systems
Eric Knight – Facilities
Luis Beltran – Hospitality
Tim Wick – Productions
William Verburg-Cunningham – Activities

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