I am SO thrilled to share the best update ever to the last post: WE HAVE OUR 501(C)(3) APPROVAL!! We ran into many difficulties getting everything ready for this, and in the end it worked out with no problems. This incredibly stressful situation is finally over, which just means wonderful things for DOTS in the future. In a fabulous turn of events we ended up getting our approval just two weeks after the submission. It had the potential to take months so It was an exciting surprise having this show up in the mailbox so quickly. Our official date of exemption was backdated to June 14, 2019 so we're ready to go on a lot of great new things and projects. We're working through those currently and getting in contact with many publishers, developers, and organizations that wanted to work with us but were waiting until we had our 501(c)(3) status. Already many more doors have been opening up in the form of fundraising options, new partnerships, and new projects. We're not sure exactly what comes next, but we know its going to be exciting!
We've been growing the DOTS Family more and more every day, and getting these sets of braille dice out to family members. It's so rewarding to get something to small out in there in the world for more people to use. The feedback has been nothing but positive which is always great. Even though we have had positive feedback on social media constantly, it's very different when we get things in the hands of people to use and test. The DOTS Family page still needs updating at the time of this post, but we've got some great new names to add to that list including stores, libraries, organizations for the blind, camps, and many others. We're so excited to see our family grow and be able to help more disabled gamers.
We've never had an official announcement before, so this is well overdue: Meet the DOTS Guild Leaders! Between the three of us, we run everything DOTS. I handle a lot of overall tasks, networking, marketing, and everything related to moving DOTS forward. Joey works on researching and developing new accessible gaming aids, managing the 3D printers that are so crucial to what we do, and many other tech related aspects. Tyler has recently moved into an operations role, taking on running many day to day planning and organizing as well as managing many of the volunteers. You can read more about us and the rest of the Guild on the DOTS Guild page!
Portraits by Henriette Boldt - website | patreon | artstation
For this month's non ad/not sponsored post discussing why Die Hard Dice is made up of amazing, wonderful, truly caring individuals, let's talk about one of their newest releases: Spellbinder Jokester. This is a beautiful set of metal dice done in their signature gemstone paint style, this time with DOTS colors of purple and green! Having a set in hand, they're even more awesome than they look in pictures. If you're interested in picking some up, DHD announced they will be making a donation to DOTS now for every piece sold! Head on over to their site and pick some up for yourself. Not only do you get some beautiful dice, you'll also be supporting a wonderful family of creators as well as us!
Unfortunately, our panel didn't get accepted for PAX West. That's completely ok though, it gives us more of a chance to enjoy the con as it's our first time not only attending West, but also visiting Seattle! We're working on planning a bunch of great things while we're there, some of which we can't share yet as they're still surprises, but hopefully we can share them soon. If you'd like to plan an event or meeting with us, get in touch! We are tossing around the idea of a meetup at a local bar for something a little less formal, but haven't settled on a place yet.
The first bit of fun news we have surrounding PAX West is we're going to be on Dragon Talk! We'll be visiting the Wizards offices on August 30th to sit down with Greg Tito and Shelly Mazzanoble and discuss everything DOTS is working on, and how to help improve accessibility in gaming. We're super excited for this and can't wait to be there. Make sure to tune in and cross your fingers we don't mess up while live!
RPG Research has been doing some truly amazing work in the way of using RPGs to help create an inclusive and accessible space for all kinds of gamers. They work on many different community outreach programs to help educate on the benefits RPGs can have, as well as providing spaces for disabled gamers to play comfortably. We're always excited for the opportunity to link up with them and are currently planning some great fun: an event at a game store in Seattle! We're still looking into locations but we hope to be able to host something in town on the night of August 30th. More information on that as it gets figured out. The goal is to have a night where we run a few games in a place that is fully accessible, bringing new players together from all walks of life.
Our Patreon has been a great resource for us as we work on so many different things. We can't thank our patrons (honored on our DOTS Guild page) enough for being so generous, it's truly been a huge help! The rewards are going through a bit of a rework and we will soon be offering a new reward where we feature our patrons that are content creators themselves. A great community is nothing without its members, and we want to highlight the work others are doing. Be on the lookout for those posts as we will offer them to the public, not just patrons!
As always, thank you for all of the love and support we get daily. We're happy to be able to do what we do and help make gaming more accessible!