Ann Arbor Poetry Slam

Addendum #2: Letter of Dissent

The following is an official record of dissent from Henry Sampson as regards one of the votes taken by EC.

I believe that the action taken by the PSI EC on the issue of “Threats of Violence” at NPS 2006 is too harsh. Yes, we cannot support dangerous or illegal activity by NPS organizers, but this did not reach either of those stages, and I guess I just feel pretty strongly that PSI needs to support the people who organize NPS, iWPS, slamcamp. This has been a thorough and fair discussion, and a thorough and fair deliberation process on this question. Others have pointed out that all decisions must be made across the board for all involved in the purported action, and I agree in principle, but I would carry a lesser restriction to all parties if that meant taking in to account the effort expended by an organizer to produce an event. A larger number of board members saw these actions in a very serious light and voted for the harsher penalties. I cannot support the action that the EC is about to take in regard to this issue. I will defend and explain the other actions the EC is taking, but I will not be able to defend this one.

Henry Sampson