The #15ForAda Campaign
We, the entire JSConf organizer family, care deeply about the tech community at large. From the start, we have had a strong mission component to our US events. We want to be an example for how conferences can be both fun and impactful. In 2010, JSConf US raised and donated over $3,000 to gender, racial, and financial diversity outreach programs in the computing sciences with our JSConf Diversity In Computing Drive. In 2012, we helped raise and donate over $25,000 to Feeding America as part of the TeamJS initiative. We have a great track record for not just putting on amazing conferences, but also for doing it in a fashion that improves the world in which we live. This is something that we are filled with pride about and look forward to every year.
For 2013, we want to continue our trend by bringing awareness and donations to the amazing Ada Initiative, which has the mission of supporting women in open technology and culture, something we fully support and believe in.
The Ada Initiative is a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing participation of women in open technology and culture, which includes open source software, Wikipedia and other open data, and open social media.
We feel strongly that this organization should be supported by technical conferences and the broader technical community. The Ada Initiative created the conference anti-harassment policy template, which was the inspiration and guide for the JSConf Code of Conduct. So we contacted the Ada Initiative and committed to conducting a sponsorship drive as part of our ticket purchase process. This year when you purchase your ticket(s) (regardless of level), there will be a checkbox that is already checked for you. This will add $10 USD to your ticket price and that $10 will be donated to the Ada Initiative as one lump sum from JSConf. Now you might be asking yourself, but why is the title "15 for Ada Campaign"? Well, we would be remiss if we asked you to help out with $10 and were not willing to assist as well, so for every donation made we will be matching $5 from the JSConf US budget to bring the total donation up to $15.
While this donation is completely optional, the checkbox will be checked by default and no refunds or cancellations can be honored. We strongly encourage you to leave the checkbox checked and help us raise sponsorship AND awareness of the Ada Initiative. In fact, we would encourage you to tweet/g+/facebook/etc the reasons why you personally support the Ada Initiative as well with the hashtag #15ForAda. You can do this leading up to and after the ticket purchase. Please do this to help increase awareness and support of the Ada Initiative among your friends/followers so we can all help to be the change we want to see.
This Is Not Just JSConf
This is just the first step in a long journey that we invite other conferences from JS and other languages to join us on. We have teamed up with the wonderful people at O'Reilly (who are already sponsors of the Ada Initiative) in a joint effort as part of Fluent and JSConf to make "adopting a diversity-focused organization" a core part of our respective conference events. We want this to be a model and example for other conferences to follow. We want harmony and positive action to be the reasons we bring up diversity. We want change and we are willing to work for it and we want you to be part of it. We, JSConf, have selected the Ada Initiative as our mission, we encourage you to find yours.
Cool Story, But I Am Not Going To JSConf
That is fine, you can still help out. All too often great organizations like the Ada Initiative are only brought up during less than peaceful discussions. Let's change the tempo and talk about them without the need for a polarizing event! Maybe you have never written JS (or never again care to), you can still support the Ada Initiative via donations (below) and/or by raising awareness using the #15ForAda hashtag. If you like the concept, maybe you can help organize/coordinate/run similar things for events you do attend. We are doing this as a first step, we are happy to help you take the consecutive steps. In the end, this effort doesn't help just JS but helps everyone to create a more inclusive, inviting, and better environment than what we have now.
Great! Can I Donate More Or Donate Without Buying A Ticket?
While we would love for you to free form donate as part of this, we unfortunately can't support that just yet. Luckily, the Ada Initiative does have an open donation form along with a FAQ page that can answer most of your questions.
Questions?
For any and all questions about the Ada Initiative, please first check their FAQ page. If you have any further questions, don't hesitate to reach out directly at team@jsconf.us
