On August 1, 2009, we met online to brainstorm how we could become better leaders in our communities. After a day of learning from and sharing with each other, we realized that each of us sought to make a greater impact on the poly community at large. Thus our organization was "born".
The original purpose of Modern Poly was to be a hub of resources and information created by our group. As we thought about it, we realized that it would be a lot cooler if instead of being "spokespeople" and info gatherers, that we instead created tools for others to make their mark on poly culture. We want to create the next group of polyamorous bloggers, podcasters, and vidcasters. This is why we encourage others to submit articles for our site - so that we can promote them! :)
We saw the invisible walls that were keeping poly people from connecting with each other, even in their own cities. Few of us have the luxury to be "out" publicly, so it is hard to find others that share our beliefs in loving openly and honestly. To help bridge the virtual-to-real gap, we also created a Group Registry to help gather information about the different polyamory communities around the world. Our hope is that the group "wiki" project not only becomes a way for people to find their local poly support/social/outreach groups, but that it also becomes an ongoing documentary of the growth of public awareness and acceptance about polyamory.
In 2010, we joined the Polyamory Leadership Network, a loose association of 100-some activists and community leaders. We embrace their definition of leadership which is "doing cool things without waiting for permission". Some of our current projects (like the Poly House Party Weekend) started as ideas discussed among PLN members.
There are three people that we want to give thanks to - past members of our team:
- David Trask from Loving More, who helped us with our commuity website project
- Ashe - web developer and activist extraordinaire
- Ranger, our former chief financial officer