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A Lesson on Good & Bad ERG Allyship š¬
Maceo Owens
July 31, 2024
Hey Champs š
If you attended the ERG Engagement Tour Keynote Workshop, aka the 10 Rules of Engagement Workshop, you heard my take on allyship and how I compare allies to tourists. And if you missed it, donāt worry! Iāve uploaded this recording portion on YouTube for context. Donāt worry, itās only 10 minutes :)
 | Now, if allies are like tourists (see video above for context), itās crucial to note the fear ERG leaders have: the lack of psychological safety for their community due to ābad tourists.ā These are allies who arenāt respectful of the groupās norms and customs. Thereās a fascinating parallel here with real-world tourismāsome places, like Kyoto, Japan - are have even banned tourists because of their disruption. Theyāre making a private community, very similar to a private ERG - free from the bad tourists. |
How about another example? Over the weekend, a popular but niche conference took place: Dreamcon, the largest and fastest-growing Black-owned anime and gaming convention in the United States. You might think the ally in this scenario would be anyone who isnāt Black, but thatās not the case. Despite being Black-owned, Dreamcon is welcoming to everyone, stating on their site, āwhether youāre Black, white, brown, purple, or green like Piccolo.ā The only requirement to be an āidentifying memberā of this community is a love for gaming and/or anime. In this context, an ally would be someone who does not have a love of the anime and gaming world. (Fun fact: I fall into this ally category. Iāve attended similar conventions and even tried to cosplay š ). |  Above: A little embarrassing, but yes I was the duck (or whatever this character is). This is not my culture and although I had zero context on this show, I spend the entire day before making this cosplay from scratch and it brought my husband and a lot of the attendees some joy. I call that #allyship. |
This yearās Dreamcon was a bit different. For the first time, non-identifying people flocked to the conference due to its growing popularity (much like allies in 2020). Unfortunately, some of these attendees disrupted the event by mocking others and calling them nerds, which naturally upset some people.
This scenario is every ERGās worst fear: non-identifying people joining and ruining the vibe by being disrespectful. While itās not super common, there are instances where people join spaces they donāt identify with or agree with just for the controversy. I canāt fathom why someone would do that, but it does happen occasionally. However, Iām sure the majority of non-identifying attendees (and supporting spouses like myself) who are allies to this community used this as an opportunity to immerse themselves in a culture different from their own without any issues. They likely helped take pictures, bought from vendors, and cheered for panelists.
Hereās the reality: allies are essential for ERGs. Legally, you cannot have a private channel that only admits identifying people. Period! While itās not widely reported yet, companies are being sued for exclusive ERGs under claims of discrimination. During ERG Engagement Tour, at 3 of the 12 sessions, at least one attendee mentioned their company had recently faced this issue. Even asking members to indicate if they are an ally or not is risky. Please address this issue before the end of next month to prevent one individual from creating a problem that could jeopardize your entire ERG program.
That being said, itās probably time to reevaluate your ERG allyship strategy.
Thereās another side to this however, watch the clip above or stay tuned until next week when we dive more into the other side of allyship in ERGs.
-The ERG Homegirl
New Month, Same Theme
Weāve covered why data is important, what metrics are important, and how to collect ERG data. August will be used to dive into the visualization of these metrics and storytelling to drive results.
 | Speaking of visualization, after years of trial and error, Iāve finally finished designing an ERG dashboard that you can have built on free tools Looker Studio (for Google Folks) or PowerBi (for Teams folks). |
Catch The ERG Movement Atā¦
Excited to share that I will be a panelist at BaddieCon next month. Hereās the ticket discount code for all ERG Champs: MOBC15  | I will also be speaking at the ERG Leadership Conference in September! Grab your tickets ASAP š  |
Happening Today
 | Got questions about ERG data? Weāve got answers! Join us for a super informative LinkedIn Live Audio event where we'll tackle all your ERG data queries. |
Thatās it for this week! š
Weeks of consistent newsletters: 9 š
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