Part of the Process 2: Your Feedback
In our last Part of the Process post, we explained we had hit a snag while thinking through the ‘Call for Models’ campaign. While we thought our idea was foolproof, we learned we may have overlooked some details. That’s where you came in: we asked you, our community, for advice to overcome the bottleneck we found ourselves in, and you delivered.
In this post, we’re going to highlight some of the suggestions brought forward, and we will talk a bit about how we plan to utilize these suggestions in our current project and future. Our revamped ‘Call for Models’ project and guidelines should come out soon, so keep your eyes peeled. Without further ado, here are the themes that came up numerous times in the feedback you offered us.
Nomination process
Screenshot of feedback we received
At its inception, this campaign was based on an application process; however, we received many comments suggesting we should expand it to a nomination process as well. This would allow people to nominate someone who inspires them in the ultimate community or someone who has done work to create a more inclusive ultimate scene in their community.
This is great advice. We love the idea of including a nomination aspect to this campaign to help us select 10 people who share the same values as VC. It most definitely will be a part of the final draft of this project.
Going beyond race and gender inclusivity
More great feedback—thank you!!
When we first came up with the idea for the ‘Call for Models’, we were excited to represent top athletes from all over the world at WUCC; it seemed like an excellent way to show the mosaic that is elite ultimate.
However, someone from our community brought this up: “something beautiful about this sport is you can participate in pick up, leagues, party tournaments, club season, college season, etc.” We totally agree the best part of ultimate is that it’s for everyone and by running our campaign only at WUCC, we begin to promote elitism and even ageism, which is something we never considered.
We are still weighing our options, but comments circling inclusivity on a larger scale have peaked our interest for future projects. This first iteration of call for models will most likely still be focused on WUCC athletes but expect to see other projects featuring athletes of all different skill levels. Think of this project as a building block for future projects.
If you know any talented photographers shooting at your league nights, drop us a line - maybe we can work together to make this happen!
Language
Without feedback like this, our jobs would be a lot tougher!
This section is short and sweet but was a great piece of advice! Multiple people mentioned we should expand our campaign post by translating it into various languages to expand the scope of the campaign to reach more people from around the world.
We love this idea! If you are willing to help us translate our ‘Call for Models’ email us at info@vcultimate.com. We can pay in swag ;)
Conclusion
We are always learning, and we love that we can generate content which allows us to engage with our community. You have all been very helpful as we try to maneuver through the creation of a project we believe will bring a greater sense of inclusion, community, and equity to our product.
Our process is almost complete, and we will have the ‘Call for Models’ up and running in no time. Start thinking about people you’d like to nominate or think about what you’d like to say in your application—we can’t wait to hear from you.