The Potential Fall of Varsity Brands

[JimF-LowBari]

9 hours ago, IllianaLancerContra said:

Yes to universal training.  
But, as you are in the training business, perhaps you can shed some light on a question that comes to mind:  How often is the ‘anti-abuse’ training (for lack of a better term) updated?  Seems to me that as as staff learn what to watch for, then the perpetrators will find a way to work around it - thus requiring staff to need to watch for new stuff.  So the training needs to be continuously updated.  And it must be somewhat soul-crushing to be the person who repeatedly has to figure out what needs to be added to the training.   

As weakleft can attest: Training also needs to be updated to take into account changes to society and as missing pieces are found.

My first anti-sexual harassment training was around 1990 and covered male harassment only. My own agency caught on before Dept of Defense and had their own female harassing male add on training (missing piece). Then DoD woke up that it can go both ways. Then as being gay in federal service became no longer a problem they added same sex harassment (society change).

[Weaklefthand4ever]

5 minutes ago, JimF-LowBari said:

As weakleft can attest: Training also needs to be updated to take into account changes to society and as missing pieces are found.

My first anti-sexual harassment training was around 1990 and covered male harassment only. My own agency caught on before Dept of Defense and had their own female harassing male add on training (missing piece). Then DoD woke up that it can go both ways. Then as being gay in federal service became no longer a problem they added same sex harassment (society change).

Absolutely correct Jim. And especially in my world, it's a constant adjustment to new forms of abuse and possible security issues. My company has over 150,000 employees world wide. And although the majority of them are Brick and Mortar (working in a site,) the virtual world has added a new twist. We now have AI that constantly scrolls chats looking for key phrases, etc. We have a camera system that constantly scans for anything from someone walking in the background to open windows to cell phones being lifted and seen by the camera. When this happens, it reports automatically to the agents supervisor. 

I bring this up because no matter how fast you react, people will come up with ways to do whatever they do against the system just as quickly. It AMAZING how ingenious average folks can be. 

[scheherazadesghost]

I definitely agree that updates should be made regularly for all the reasons you both included.

I will also gently posit that abuse and harassment are abuse and harassment no matter what the perp's SOGIE is. Same for the victim-survivors. There are core tell-tale signs of grooming, harassment and abuse that we can impart to mandated reporters and educational staff. These signs can be almost universal across all kinds of people and apply to a majority of violations. If they are explained as non-gender-specific and thoughtfully illustrated by people of all backgrounds and ages, then updates can be more focused. I really like what @Weaklefthand4ever said about how evolving technologies intersect with this topic and I hadn't thought about that. I'm may even be out of date in that regard. Crucial.

The key has always been that members get this info too. Equipping them with this info and ensuring that their reporting structure acts compassionately is also crucial.

[JimF-LowBari]

Hardest training to go through was the anti sexual assault one. That one was added about 15 years ago. It was online and had a couple of scenarios of what to watch for so you could protect your teammates (it was geared to the military).

Last one was a voice talking about “Taylor” and “Sam”. At the end the voice said “notice we didn’t say what gender either person was. What genders did you think they were and what does that say about your assumptions?”. Kinda ironic as have a niece named Taylor (named after her grandFATHER) and former actress Jennette McCurdey (played a character named Sam) has a book out related how she was harassed/abused:

[scheherazadesghost]

43 minutes ago, JimF-LowBari said:

Hardest training to go through was the anti sexual assault one. That one was added about 15 years ago. It was online and had a couple of scenarios of what to watch for so you could protect your teammates (it was geared to the military).

Last one was a voice talking about “Taylor” and “Sam”. At the end the voice said “notice we didn’t say what gender either person was. What genders did you think they were and what does that say about your assumptions?”. Kinda ironic as have a niece named Taylor (named after her grandFATHER) and former actress Jennette McCurdey (played a character named Sam) has a book out related how she was harassed/abused:

First, I'm sorry to hear what your niece endured. Same for the family. You are undoubtedly a resilient bunch. I hate to hear how much interfacing with these topics others have had to endure. We shouldn't have to be talking about this.

Yes, training that gently helps folks unpack their own biases is ideal. Easier said than done.

Fortunately, my generation and younger often see past SOGIE more easily than our elders. And of course, thanks to our elders. Again, the more tools and procedures we give Gen z to help them shape their own reporting and safety systems, then better. It's crucial we enable them... not just stop at training.

[Weaklefthand4ever]

10 minutes ago, scheherazadesghost said:

Fortunately, my generation and younger often see past SOGIE more easily than our elders. And of course, thanks to our elders. Again, the more tools and procedures we give Gen z to help them shape their own reporting and safety systems, then better. It's crucial we enable them... not just stop at training.

Agreed. In some ways, this type of thing is still very siloed. Most people do not have the knowledge of all the pieces of the puzzle. Most times, we (in Training and ID) are trying to piece that puzzle together without the picture on the box. The people who generally have a better concept of the whole (top down approach) are those who have been unfortunate enough to have experienced the actual trauma of abuse. 

My skill set has been forged by a very fortunate series of technology and methodology changes as they ran directly into a generational change of how we approach different learning modalities. To sit a multi generational classroom (virtual or otherwise) for an extended period of time is an absolute MIND TRIP. If you can get them to communicate for 8 hours a day over 7 weeks and not get annoyed at each other, you have accomplished a task that is nearly epic.

I would LOVE to lend my talents to the overall organization or even just an individual corps. That being said, the typical volunteer pathways are not generally set up for this type of involvement so people like myself and others who WANT to do good, are sometimes underutilized or not utilized at all. It's a shame really. 

[JimF-LowBari]

1 hour ago, scheherazadesghost said:

First, I'm sorry to hear what your niece endured. Same for the family. You are undoubtedly a resilient bunch. I hate to hear how much interfacing with these topics others have had to endure. We shouldn't have to be talking about this.

Thanks but Miscommunication somewhere, only brought up my niece as she has the same “could apply to either gender” name. And with my twisted sense of humor I think it’s funny she was named after a guy. (Actually the name was picked before they knew her gender.) Far as I know nothing has happened to any family member.

As for the anti sexual assault training, I worked for Dept of Defense and this was annual mandated training. But hearing names Taylor and Sam I definitely thought of the niece and McCurdy

Edited September 18, 2022 by JimF-LowBari

[Weaklefthand4ever]

2 hours ago, scheherazadesghost said:

The key has always been that members get this info too. Equipping them with this info and ensuring that their reporting structure acts compassionately is also crucial.

Agreed and I think the other elephant in the room is that it HAS to be consistent from corps to corps or activity to activity (WGI, USABands, DCI, DCA etc etc etc.) Although we would logically think that people know the rules and would like to hope that the message is consistent, it is ALARMINGLY untrue. And I think we have to face the fact that without consistent training, you can't have consistent reporting. In the ID world, we always talk about "building the house." The foundation of that house has to be the end goal. Without a consistent message, vision...whatever you wanna call it, you simply CANNOT have a strong house. 

Develop the training. Make it mandatory, track it and hold people accountable who don't FIRST pass or take the training. Then and only then can you hold people accountable. I cannot even BEGIN to tell you how many times I have watched people skate by on corporate policy because there was a lack of adequate (or any training) and all they simply had to say is "I didn't know I was doing anything wrong." We CANNOT afford that when it comes to harassment and abuse. Once is too many times. 

I am not trying to be utopian and think there is some magical fairly dust or golden unicorn horn that's going to make it all better. But you HAVE to start somewhere and DCI and the Corps in general are wasting time, money and effort in trying to write their own policies when FEDERAL LAW has already dictated what the policies should be. I dunno.....I just get frustrated at how easy it all is to start fixing it when you have the right people with the right knowledge and skillset doing the specific jobs. 

Horrible example, but.....no one person in Oakridge could have built a bomb. But get 1000's of people together with specific skill sets and see what happens. Even siloed they did it. Imagine what we can accomplish now. 

[scheherazadesghost]

Thanks for clarifying, @JimF-LowBari. I wasn't sure, but just in case I read it that way, wanted to be there for ya. 🙂

Right on about SOGIEs and names. So many things play into our biases. I'm somewhat relieved to hear about the training in our federal gov that you've shared. My interaction with the feds last year left also left me pleasantly surprised; it was one of the best work environments I've experienced in years, surprisingly.

1 hour ago, Weaklefthand4ever said:

To sit a multi generational classroom (virtual or otherwise) for an extended period of time is an absolute MIND TRIP. If you can get them to communicate for 8 hours a day over 7 weeks and not get annoyed at each other, you have accomplished a task that is nearly epic.

Indeed a whole industry revolves around this kind of work (but I'm preaching to the choir.) I've been involved peripherally over time, but I have not been able to dive in because the trainings aren't often refined enough to be fully inclusive of my history and identity. The other side of the training coin is that it can harm people who have been through the thing the training is trying to minimize... which speaks to your point about how crucial the right company/facilitator can be.

1 hour ago, Weaklefthand4ever said:

The people who generally have a better concept of the whole (top down approach) are those who have been unfortunate enough to have experienced the actual trauma of abuse.

I would LOVE to lend my talents to the overall organization or even just an individual corps. That being said, the typical volunteer pathways are not generally set up for this type of involvement so people like myself and others who WANT to do good, are sometimes underutilized or not utilized at all. It's a shame really. 

Yes. One really should not volunteer this work. Beyond the serious moral repercussions of asking a trauma survivor to divulge their experience/expertise on these topics for free... even if the facilitator/company doesn't include survivors (and it doesn't necessarily need to,) the training means nothing if there's no followthru. Followthru requires financial investment and leadership buyin just as much as good training.

It is a rare unicorn indeed who is financially stable enough to volunteer timely, relevant, compassionate training.

It boggles to the mind to think how much improvement in the industry would see across the board if the orgs could commit to this kind of work. BD is probably the closest and will justifiably ride high until others figure it out, but they are far from perfect even at a distance. While others piddle on figuring it out, more young people will be hurt.

[scheherazadesghost]

Here is the full SafeSport training catalogue for inquiring minds:

https://uscenterforsafesport.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/FSS-CourseCatalog_083122_vFinal3.6.pdf