Hello, all!
Who am I?
My name is Matthew Kamm (he/him). I’ve been a member of the RFR community since 2014, mostly as a player at Witchwood (I play Zelai). I hope to have the chance to crunch for Entanglement but haven’t gotten out there yet. I’ve been a Board Member of RFR since June of 2015, which makes me the longest-serving current Board Member. I was also the first ever Board Member elected to the position, joining the original Trustees who invested in creating RFR. I’ve served as our Advertising/Marketing point person, created our business cards and flyers, and have been a Mark of the Red Feather volunteer since the program’s creation. I also participated in the selection and hiring of our first Diversity Consultant to review game materials and the implementation of her recommendations to make sure our games live up to the Red Feather values. I’m also a man, and I understand that depending on the candidate pool and how the votes break that may make me ineligible for election (which is fine).
What am I about?
My platform at the time I first ran back in 2015 was mostly founded on transparency - providing a conduit for community members to have some idea what goes on at the Board level and feel like there is a Board member they can approach with any concerns or questions they might have. That’s still important to me, and recent conversations have shown me that we still have more work to do in that arena. At a minimum, I want to make sure that the list of who the heck in on the Board is kept up-to-date and easy to find, not just on the website but on our presences around Discord, Slack, etc. where many players go to find info. I also would like to institute structured “Ask A Board Member” events a few times a year where folks can just ask whatever is on their mind and get answers from the Board.
Accessibility is also really important to me. Our games do the best job I’ve ever seen of making a playstyle totally based around crafting or mercantile pursuits or downtime information skills not only viable, but fun and rewarding. This allows us to welcome people of all physical abilities to the LARP experience even if they’re not able or willing to go swing a boffer. We still have so much more we can do, though, in terms of making games and sites accessible to people with a variety of access needs. Financial accessibility continues to be a big priority of mine - LARP is an expensive hobby, and I am really proud of our games for offering the lowest per-weekend-event price (including food and sleeping arrangements!) I’ve personally ever seen for Witchwood, and offering a pay-what-you-can model for Entanglement. There is still work to be done, especially in attacking the difficult question of how to reward and recognize the value of donations of money and labor without leaving those who cannot afford either - due to limited funds, restrictive work schedules, childcare or elder care responsibilities, etc. - behind in their characters’ stories and development.
In addition to transparency, I find myself having come full circle from being the new guy on an established Board to now being the old guard. I’m working with Joy to try to keep our institutional memory alive in a way that future Board members can access and use (and will continue to do so whether re-elected or not), but I also want to preserve the continuity of my knowledge and experience serving on the Board as the Board continues to change.
I hope that I can count on your support in my bid for re-election! Please don’t hesitate to reach out and ask questions -
Where Can You Find Me?
E-mail me at mdkamm@gmail.com
Find me on Discord as stengleronymous
Message me on Facebook here