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Who is Paul Birtel of MAGFest? Employees accuse executive director of 'verbal and emotional abuse' at work

MAGFest is now the final victim of 2020

The annual festival celebrating video games and video game music, MAGFest is now mired in controversy after many claims on social media suggested that the Executive Director of the company, Paul Birtel, fired several people from their staffing positions without explanation and has also indefinitely banned some of the employees. 

What is MAGFest?

MAGFest stands for Music and Gaming Festival, originally the Mid-Atlantic Gaming Festival, it is an annual carnival held in the Washington metropolitan area, dedicated to video games and video game music. It primarily features a large open video gaming room, a hall of arcade cabinets, concerts by chiptune musicians and video game cover bands and a Bring Your Own Computer LAN Party. The first MAGFest was celebrated on September 2002, in Holiday Inn Tanglewood, Roanoke, Virginia with 300 attendees and the fest witnessed more than 24,000 attendees at Super MAGFest 2020.

What are the claims?

According to the friendsofmag, the board members of the company, including Birtel have failed in their duties to MAGFest the organization and the MAGFest community. The website further claims, "The tools that were created to keep people at MAG safe have been abused and perverted by the people who should have been the ones to uphold them. Half of the people who spoke up against the Board and Executive Director’s actions, abuses, and code of conduct violations have now been removed under the guise of breaking the code of conduct themselves. The ones who remain are on borrowed time. In the board’s communications around their actions, they have made it clear that dissent at MAGFest will no longer be tolerated. The only people who are allowed to continue working for MAGFest are those who will be quietly complicit in their abuse."

Several claims were made against the board members saying:

- Harassed and threatened many office employees
- Harassed and threatened various volunteers, including the staff-elected board nominees
- Asked employees to compromise their personal and professional ethics in the course of their normal job duties
- Not responded in a timely manner to formal HR complaints made about the Executive Director by all 6 full-time employees
- Not taken appropriate steps to resolve formal HR complaints made about the Executive Director by all 6 full-time employees
- Not communicated any resolution to formal HR complaints made about the Executive Director by all 6 full-time employees
- Subverted existing HR procedures in order to retaliate against and discipline employees inappropriately
- Subverted existing internal procedures in order to retaliate against and discipline volunteers, including the staff-elected board nominees, inappropriately
- Created a culture of fear and secrecy around all dealings with them
- Removed employees from key situations, including those in the employees’ written and signed job descriptions, with no warning or explanation
- Delayed and subsequently refused to add staff-elected board nominees to the board
- Refused to act on any attempts at feedback, honesty, and collaboration from employees, staff, and volunteers
- Took attempts at feedback, honesty, and collaboration as material for retaliation against employees, staff, and volunteers
- Acted in bad faith, repeatedly and unquestionably, to the detriment of the organization and everyone in it

What are the MAGFest employees demanding?

MAGFest employees have demanded the entire current Board of Directors to step down from their position and to be replaced by the top 3 candidates from the most recent nominee election and further members to be added via a new staff election. Along with that, the demands also include: 
-An immediate stop to inappropriate employee disciplinary actions that have taken place outside of the existing HR process.
-An immediate stop to inappropriate volunteer disciplinary actions that have taken place outside of the existing Staff Operations and/or SAFE processes.
-An immediate stop to private meetings requested by the existing Board of Directors of individual office members, for the purposes of harassing, disciplining, or intimidating them.
-An immediate stop to private meetings requested by the existing Board of Directors of individual staffers or volunteers, for the purposes of harassing, disciplining, or intimidating them.
-A new set of bylaws mandating clearer board terms and staff-elected members.

Several claims were made on social media against the celebrated fest, as technical consultant Shir Goldbird tweeted, "#MAGFest is cancelled. Don't support events run by abusers. I've spent years working for @MAGFest and trying to work with Paul Birtel and board has violated every ethical boundary I hold. No more. http://friendsofmag.com." The Internet user further wrote, "BTW, I'm banned from even attending #MAGFest for the next 2 years because I refused to sign a gag order saying I wouldn't speak out against Paul Birtel and the rest of the board further. If they stay in charge, in 2 years @MAGFest won't exist anyway."

While another one said, "That's utterly depressing. Years upon years ago, I absolutely enjoyed my times at MAGFest. Looking through everything listed it's painful to see that sort of devolution. I genuinely thank the lot of you for trying so hard and am truly sorry you all had to suffer this." Another one wrote, "That f**king sucks so much....MAGFest seemed like one of the last few good conventions. Super disappointed to hear that their board have been super abusive to their employees. I won't support a convention that treats people like that."