Your Safe Space is My Priority
There was suspicious and inappropriate activity during class today. I feel so sorry. I feel furious. I feel sad. I feel disappointed. I feel insecure. And I feel more committed than ever to maintain this safe space for all of us.
My focus has been on ensuring you can hear me and see me to keep you physically safe. This means that the screen is focused on those with cameras on and my voice and the music are loud, but those things combined means that I can miss things. Today I missed activity that violated our safe space. I apologize.
Today was also a reminder that some people act really inconsiderately and inappropriately, and that is not ok. We can try to move past things quickly and bury them, but sometimes you need to call out bad behavior for what it is. Identifying something as wrong and explaining how it impacts you does not make you are weak - it means you are strong because you confront the issue. It also allows you to proactively think about the boundaries that are necessary to avoid exposing yourself to that harmful thing again.
I was tempted not to address this issue publicly and instead connect only with the people who attended today’s class. However, I decided to put this out there because I want everyone to know that I refuse to accept anyone violating our space. I am going to do whatever I can to protect me, and I am going to do whatever I can to protect you. And just because we can survive something doesn’t mean we should take it sitting down. We will stand up for ourselves. We will defend ourselves.
Like every other challenge we have faced, we will overcome this too, together.
We will institute the following precautions to protect our space, effective immediately:
Enabling Waiting Room: The waiting room feature will be enabled. This means that I will have to let each person into the Zoom room.
Arrival at or before Start Time: If possible, please arrive on time (or even a little early). About 5 minutes into class, I will take a quick pause to let latecomers into the room (so still come if you are running late). For our sold out or larger classes, my “employee” (ok, it’s actually just my husband but employee sounds better) will help me manage letting you all into the Zoom room as quickly as possible.
Confirming Registration: It would be helpful if your Zoom name is the same name you use to register for the class. For new participants or those who do not come as frequently, I may need to ask you to turn your video on briefly just to confirm that you are not someone we have reported to Zoom (these people often change their Zoom names/emails). After that, it will still be up to you whether to turn your camera on or off.
Reporting: Thank you to the person who notified me of the issue today. Please feel empowered to come off mute or use the chat if you see something happening that should not be. Also, you can use the Security feature at the bottom of the screen to Report the activity to Zoom (click here for more information about how to do that.)
Feedback: If you have any other suggestions or recommendations about how I can improve, please email me at geneva@reclamationfitness.org.
