Over the past few days, Brienne Allan (@ratmagnet) has posted hundreds of stories of sexism, racism, and homophobia in the craft beer industry. There is not a single brewery that is not implicated within these stories—whether they were named or unnamed, whether or not the stories were specifically about them. Fair State is no different.

Many of these stories come down to a single question: What are we doing to ensure that our staff, patrons, and community members are physically, mentally, and emotionally safe and respected?

We know that we do not have all the answers, and that what we have done so far isn’t enough. But we also believe that it’s important to share what we’re doing publicly and transparently so we can learn and grow together as a community.

What we plan to do this year:

• Identify consultant(s) who are able to work with us to improve equity, representation, and building a Fair State where all can feel they belong.
• Identify and hire a new HR compliance service.
• Formalize our HR policies around incident and harassment reporting.
• Create and share safety guidelines + expectations for any Fair State event with expected attendance above 100+ people.

What we have done so far:

• Held meetings with taproom staff to discuss and implement new ways to make our taproom feel safe for both guests and staff.
• Held de-escalation, narcan, and first aid trainings for taproom staff.
• Set up and held weekly internal culture meetings with all hiring managers to assess gaps in documentation and training and identify next steps.
• Hired an HR consultant to assist in our work.

This is by no means a complete list, but we hope it gives a sense of how we are approaching this issue internally. As always, we welcome questions, feedback, and discussion, either here or by emailing [email protected].