On behalf of the convention planning team, we apologize to Elwin Cotman for his experience at Norwescon 43. We wanted him to have an extraordinary, welcoming experience with the Pacific Northwest fannish community and we acknowledge that is not what happened for him. As a nominee for the 2021 Philip K. Dick Award it is reasonable to expect that he would participate on the “All About the Philip K. Dick Awards” panel. We apologize for not including him as a panelist.
Although it was not our intention to exclude him from participating, we know that all actions have consequences. We recognize that omission can be erasure and we regret that was his experience. We cannot go back and correct this error, but we can and will do better as we move forward.
We also recognize that BIPOC erasure is a problem in our community and that we have work to do to uplift marginalized voices. We will take this opportunity to be accountable and demonstrate our commitment to our Mission Statement and Code of Conduct.
We are also very sorry that this diminished his experience as a Philip K. Dick award nominee. It is our great privilege to welcome nominees for the award to Norwescon each year as our special guests. We believe our convention would benefit further from Elwin’s unique perspective and experiences and we hope he will join us as a panelist at a future Norwescon.