The Dissolution of the TDC
As a former board member of the the Type Directors Club, I feel compelled to join the conversation about its dissolution. First, everyone should read Juan’s letter. I understand his frustrations and that moving the club forward even millimeters was an arduous process. I commend him for what he accomplished in his tenure there.
When I was on the board, three of the twelve members were people of color. Four of the twelve board members were women. It felt like, at the time, the club was very focused on bringing more women into type and lettering. The TDC was originally founded as a gathering place for a now-defunct all white male profession (“Type Direction”). For much of its existence it was a men-only organization and I’ve definitely affectionately referred to the TDC as an “old man club” in the past.
Over time the club took steps toward being more inclusive, but those steps were small and slow and very much determined by whoever on the board had the time and ability to initiate anything. If you are in a leadership position within a volunteer-run organization and make a good suggestion, it’s on you to spearhead it. This is how I ended up redesigning and recoding the club’s website for a year (in my mind a new site would help the club attract more young people — something they were also struggling to do). This is why it’s particularly sad that Juan resigned from the board, because he was clearly very motivated and was ready to spearhead initiatives.
Everyone I worked with (including a board member whose political beliefs contrasted starkly with my own), was respectful of each other, open to suggestions and collaborations, and generally viewed progress for the club as not only welcome but necessary. I’m very sorry that this was not Juan’s experience, and I am not invalidating his experience by sharing my own. It was hard to read his words because my ideas were almost always celebrated or at least explored, but I am a cis white woman and I wasn’t making suggestions that were really rocking the boat.
Much of what we talked about toward the end of my time on the board was how to financially save the club. It had been struggling for years — basically since online design showcase websites started making paid annual competitions feel less necessary. When the club announced its dissolution, I was sad but I wasn’t completely surprised. The timing of that dissolution, however, was truly terrible.
Whatever the board’s intentions were — to leave behind the long history of it being a club for old white men, to “pass the torch” to a younger generation — the timing makes it seem as though Juan was a large catalyzing force for the club shutting down. I know he was not, and I know they did not intend for it to appear that way, but it does. Was it a great time to initiate a fundraiser to try to save the club? Absolutely not. Should they have organized some sort of type community town hall to discuss paths forward (including dissolution)? Yes. I can imagine a lot of TDC members are upset that the club is shutting down without any notice and without consulting their community first. The TDC has always been known (in good ways and in bad) as being a tight knit community, and including the community in the decision would have been wise.
Was the club racist? I would certainly agree that it wasn’t profoundly anti-racist. Should the club have dissolved? It’s hard to say. Making progress when you are weighted down with so much history is difficult. I hope something good does rise from the TDC’s ashes. And I hope that Carol Wahler, who has been the backbone of the club for so many years, feels the love of the type community during this time. I have never met a person more devoted to an organization than Carol and she’s who I’m thinking of most right now.
Whatever form the TDC takes in the future, it would be lucky to have a “Carol” holding it all together. I look forward to being a part of and supporting the new and more inclusive club to come.
