Listen, I get anger. But one thing I've learned and had to learn as a cis het Black man is to ask questions, and now I hear y'all going off without asking questions. If you haven't produced a conference, then you don't know what it costs. You're assuming ppl are making profits.

Hotels require tens of thousands of dollars in a deposit before you even start promoting your conference. And you have to match that money or you're gonna lose that money. Hotels don't care. Then there's paying speakers and staff.

Laura Nalbandian or @NORWAC may have exceeded their expectations with their virtual conference. But before that, she was nearly shitting bricks cuz the hotel ate her deposit. Not sure on the figure, but it was thousands of dollars.

Being on the board of ISAR, I've seen how much money goes toward producing conferences. In 2009, the first ISAR conference I attended, the organization lost money. Big time. It was also the Great Recession.

Now, I agree on some key points. Not everyone can afford to go these conferences, particularly from marginalized groups. So, more conference organizers are hosting scholarships. What y'all wouldn't know is that speakers could also be paid better.

Speaking at a live conference was a practice in losing money. You get paid $150 per lecture with 2 nights at your hotel cut in half. That's still maybe $225-250 for those two nights and full cost for 1 night if you stay extra. Then there's food & airfare.

So, you spend $600-800 to make $300, just to speak at a conference and be among the astro-tribe. Yeah, it sucks. But it's also risky for the conference holder. If they don't get people to attend, they lose money. I've seen this with a few conferences.

Again, there's been talk about changing the models and they certainly will change in this COVID-19 moment, but be careful thinking that people are getting rich off of live conferences. I think it's fair to be more demanding of organizers on speakers.

But I'll say it: y'all wrong for going after @NORWAC. NORWAC has at least 7-10 people of color speaking at a conference. That's almost 8 more people than who were speaking when I first went there in 2015. So, change is happening. And may increase in speed.

Does it need to happen with ISAR, UAC, NCGR and OPA? Yup. But organizations are slower than individual conference producers like Laura.

But let me also hit with some harder truths, though. Y'all want new BIPOC people of color at these conferences? Who, though? Let me be blunt. If you've been studying astrology for 30 years & you got a grand to blow on attending a conference, are you...

...going to spend it on someone who just started studying astrology 3 years ago and who hasn't established themselves in the field? Who really nobody knows? As an organizer, would you do that? I'll be honest: I wouldn't. And I don't.

But that begs a question, how do you get known? Publish work. Speak on astrology. Deliver content on social media. Make clear replies on social media. Ask to participate in conferences. Apply to be a speaker. Find out what it takes.

I did. And someone may take a chance on you. And then you better perform and come ready. That's nearly how any sensible field operates. Actually, academia is a lot harder with more bullshit. Okay, that's my weigh in.