AUREA End of Year Reflections

Written by the AUREA Team

Word count: 1276
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Loki - Web Developer

Early this year, I made a decision. I was done with aromantic spaces online. I was exhausted. 

Then this project came along. I was asked to be a consultant sometime in April, and agreed somewhat hesitantly. The original reason I was consulting had nothing to do with web development, but soon, those skills came in handy. I spent hours - and literal days without sleep - getting our website ready for launch. I became more and more invested in a project I barely had time for in the spring.

The AUREA team became my reason to be invested. As the aromantic community reacted to our website, and we got an outpouring of translation volunteers, I had a reason to stay. (And to stay up until three in the morning trying to make multiple languages work on our site.)

I can’t wait for ASAW and what the future holds, but as I reflect on this year, I could not be more grateful for this wonderful community. Happy six months y’all - I can’t wait to see what the future holds.

Darcy - Editor-in-Chief

AUREA has changed the way I look at progress. It’s easy to fixate on the fact that the greater public doesn’t know about us. It’s easy to look over the big LGBT+ groups and notice the distinct lack of green. It’s easy to see the monolith we face when it comes to diversity. But, if I’ve learned anything these past few months, it’s that so many aros are passionate about this cause. And it’s thanks to AUREA that I have been introduced to these wonderful people and projects. 

Every month I sit down to write the What’s Going On piece and I ask the team, “What’ve people been up to?”. They always have an interesting answer. Maybe, more often than not, it’s a single article or a couple of new start-ups for the entire month. Which, in a numbers game, that’s next to nothing. 

Except, that’s a person we’re talking about, or a group of people that have decided to make a change. And I get to not only scour the Internet, searching for these treasures, but I get to tell you about them too. 

Our progress is slow and uncharted, but I am thoroughly delighted to be a part of this change and to be a vehicle for this conversation. I couldn’t be more pleased by AUREA. Go, team <3

Sea - Resource Director

I've always been involved in doing volunteer work, and I've seen a lot of new community initiatives start and end in a very short period of time. So when the creation of the AUREA website was first suggested to me I was excited, but also a little nervous. I didn't want to see this project fail the way so many others have. 

But six months after the website launch, I'm pleased to say that, at least for the moment, my fears seem to have been unfounded. The entire AUREA team is still just as invested in building up the aromantic community today as they were on day one. It's amazing how much passion and talent both the team and other volunteers have put into this project, and I feel so lucky that I get to work on this website with so many amazing people. I can't wait to see how the AUREA website grows and changes in the years to come.

Ramen - Secretary

Before this website came to be I wanted some sort of central website with information about aromanticism, and to at least help with creating one. I wasn’t sure how to get there until this opportunity opened. However, it was still a big risk joining this initiative. Sensitive information had to be shared to some extent and all the team members were basically strangers I met online, so I had to proceed with great caution.

In the end we created something great together, something that will aid the aro community towards better recognition. Being a part of this team has been really great; it feels nice to be a part of something big and I learned some things along the way. Like not all people you meet online are evil scammers that are out to steal your information. 

I also have learned more things about my own community (the aro one). I can’t wait to see what the future holds for AUREA!

Neir - Treasurer

The growth of AUREA in such a short span of time has been exhilarating. I could not be more proud of the community for stepping up to give us helpful, consistent feedback as we collectively build our resource from the ground up. It was when I started hearing about AUREA in local offline a-spec circles that it really hit me how important it is for us to continue building and improving. It’s important to a lot of us.

I read a lot in my academic studies about policy, about community building, about advocacy and grassroots research. To see it happening in front of me via AUREA, and to be part of it happening, is something I am very grateful for. (I also won’t lie, it’s pretty fantastic to get to cite AUREA as a personal case study in my courses, simultaneously spreading awareness about aromanticism.) 

I love the team and I love the volunteers and contributors that make AUREA what it is. I love learning. Being part of this initiative has opened up so many doors for me to continue learning from and with the community.

Magni - Vice President

I’ve worked on and initiated a couple of aro community projects in the past, each with varying levels of success. Being invited to join AUREA felt like the natural progression of this. I was thinking small when I started previous projects; seeing AUREA soar above the rest, growing large and impactful, has been exciting.

This trajectory can be credited in part to the team. They’re a great group of people who I appreciate enormously. We identify and amplify each other's strengths with ease and this is, by far, the best team experience I've ever been a part of. 

It’s probably clear now that I am really passionate about this community and enjoy being involved in things. I like being able to contribute to projects by coming up with ideas and suggesting small improvements which help to optimize the project as a whole. I find value in helping to accumulate information on the aromantic community and look forward to working on surveys to further gather information on our community’s composition and the problems we face.

Tost - President

It's been six months with the website being up and a few more since I first started asking people if they'd like to be part of this project. I'm not saying that in my wildest dreams I hadn't imagined the shape that AUREA has now, my imagination was aimed high and I'm pleased to say that I'm living that dream now.

Working on AUREA with the team has been a lot of work and often an exercise in patience and determination (I'm looking at you, anchor links). What makes it gratifying is seeing how the community responded to the effort - we got a lot of supportive words and what I'm especially pleased about - volunteer translators willing to get involved in making information about aromanticism available not only for English-speaking people.

I again have high hopes for AUREA in the upcoming year, now that the website is up and we can focus some of our energy on projects that will further the education about and advocacy for aromantic people.