Melbourne has a large vegan community, many of whom look forward to the annual World Vegan Day (WVD) festival. WVD is largely made possible by dedicated and hard working volunteers who give their time and energy out of passion and commitment to the cause of veganism. Of the current WVD committee there is one member who is paid to manage the event. Given how big Melbourne WVD has become, the event manager plays a crucial role in making sure the event goes smoothly. We would like to see this paid position held by someone who lives a vegan lifestyle and upholds the values held by the hundreds of vegans who care about, and attend, this event.
Given how many vegans there are in Melbourne, it is hard to believe there would not be multiple people who have the skills and passion to perform this role and who would appreciate the opportunity to be paid for work they can feel good about doing.

There are two main problems with paying a non-vegan person to manage the Melbourne WVD event:

1) By paying a non-vegan person, money from WVD is ultimately being funnelled towards funding a non-vegan lifestyle. Instead it could be putting (vegan) food on the table of someone who chooses a compassionate, cruelty-free lifestyle.

2) A non-vegan person is less aware of all the issues which need to be considered when putting on an event like this. An excellent example of this was seen at the 2012 World Vegan Day when non-vegan, tested on animals sunscreen was bought and supplied to festival goers. This happened under the direction of the current event manager, who not being vegan did not think to source cruelty-free sunscreen. For the festival to be successful in a) delivering a message to the wider Melbourne community and b) providing vegans with a relaxing day where for once they do not have to worry about what is and isn't vegan, it is really important to not have embarrassing and unfortunate inconsistencies like this occur.

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