The Ozark Moonshine & Music Festival is committed to a policy of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), thereby aiding in the advancement of socially sustainable festival planning and management practices.
At The Ozark Moonshine & Music Festival a diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplace is one where:
Diversity is the presence of difference within a giving setting. In this case the workplace is the setting, and the differences typically refer to identity like race and gender, and sometimes ethnicity, religion, nationality, or sexual orientation.
Inclusion has to do with people with different identities feeling and/or being valued, leveraged, and welcomed within a given setting (whether that’s a team, workplace, or industry). Longtime Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion educator, Verna Myers, said: “Diversity is being asked to the party. Inclusion is being asked to dance.” Inclusion isn’t a natural consequence of diversity. You can have a diverse team of talent, but that doesn’t mean they feel welcomed or valued or are given opportunities to grow.
Equity is an approach that ensures everyone has access to the same opportunities. Equity recognizes that we don’t all start from the same place because advantages and barriers exist. It’s a process that acknowledges uneven starting places and seeks to correct the imbalance. It refers to the process an organization engages in to ensure that people with marginalized identities have the opportunity to grow, contribute, and develop.
At The Ozark Moonshine & Music Festival a diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplace is one where all employees and volunteers, whatever their gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, age, sexual orientation or identity, education or disability, feels valued and respected. We are committed to a nondiscriminatory approach and provide equal opportunity for employment and advancement in all of our departments, programs, and worksites. We respect and value diverse life experiences and heritages and ensure that all voices are valued and heard.
We’re committed to modeling diversity and inclusion for the entire festival/special events industry of the nonprofit sector, and to maintaining an inclusive environment with equitable treatment for all.
To provide informed, authentic leadership for cultural equity, The Ozark Moonshine & Music Festival strives to:
- See diversity, inclusion, and equity as connected to our mission and critical to ensure the well-being of our staff and the communities we serve.
- Acknowledge and dismantle any inequities within our policies, systems, programs, and services, and continually update and report organization progress.
- Explore potential underlying, unquestioned assumptions that interfere with inclusiveness.
- Advocate for and support board-level thinking about how systemic inequities impact our organization’s work, and how best to address that in a way that is consistent with our mission.
- Help to challenge assumptions about what it takes to be a strong leader at our organization, and who is well-positioned to provide leadership.
- Practice and encourage transparent communication in all interactions.
- Commit time and resources to expand more diverse leadership within our board, staff, committee, and advisory bodies.
- Lead with respect and tolerance. We expect all employees to embrace this notion and to express it in workplace interactions and through everyday practices.
The Ozark Moonshine & Music Festival abides by the following action items to help promote diversity and inclusion in our workplace.
- Pursue cultural competency throughout our organization by creating substantive learning opportunities and formal, transparent policies.
- Generate and aggregate quantitative and qualitative research related to equity to make incremental, measurable progress toward the visibility of our diversity, inclusion, and equity efforts. Once the content is curated it will be added to our website so others can access.
- Improve our cultural leadership pipeline by creating and supporting programs and policies that foster leadership that reflects the diversity of American society.
- Pool resources and expand offerings for underrepresented constituents by connecting with other organizations committed to diversity and inclusion efforts.
- Develop and present sessions on diversity, inclusion, and equity to provide information and resources internally, and to members, the community, and the arts industry.
- Advocate for public and private-sector policy that promotes diversity, inclusion, and equity. Challenge systems and policies that create inequity, oppression and disparity.
It is the policy and commitment of Ozark Moonshine & Music Festival that it does not discriminate on the basis of race, age, color, sex, national origin, physical or mental disability, or religion, or otherwise as may be prohibited by federal and state law.
Any employee, board member, volunteer or client who believes that s/he or any other affiliate of Ozark Moonshine and Music Festival has been discriminated against is strongly encouraged to report this concern promptly to the Compliance/Human Resources Officer seated on the board of directors.
Discriminatory Harassment
The Ozark Moonshine & Music Festival will not permit any form of harassment in the workplace. The festival believes all employees, prospective employees, customers, vendors, and other visitors deserve respect and dignity. Harassment based on any individual’s race, religion, gender, gender identification, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, or other protected characteristic will result in disciplinary action up to and including termination. All employees must abide by this policy.
Harassment or intimidation of a client, staff person, guest or volunteer because of that person’s race, age, color, sex, national origin, physical or mental disability, or religion is specifically prohibited and may be grounds for termination.
Harassment and intimidation include: Abusive, foul or threatening language or behavior. Harassment is any offensive or unwelcome conduct based on a person’s race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, or other characteristics.
Conduct becomes harassment when it creates an environment that is intimidating or hostile to a reasonable person. Harassment does not have to be sexual in nature. Harassing behavior can be physical, verbal, visual, or any other act that belittles or demeans an individual. A person need not be the target of harassment to be the victim of harassing behavior.
The Ozark Moonshine and Music Festival is committed to maintaining a workplace that is free of any such harassment and will not tolerate discrimination against staff members, volunteers or agency clients.
Issues of discriminatory treatment, harassment, or intimidation on any of these bases should immediately be reported to the Compliance/Human Resources Officer seated on the board of directors and, if substantiated, prompt action will be taken.
This policy ensures that our organization is welcoming and inclusive to all people and that we are committed to developing everyone associated with the management of the festival to emulate how we move forward.
Adopted May 28, 2024