Liberal gender matching details
It is important for you to consider that all students should be able to participate in fundraising events of this kind. Other companies providing fundraising services of this kind unintentionally exclude such participation due to the designs of their systems.
In today's society, students are sometimes limited in their participation in events of this type due to their sexual orientation because of these system designs. IntellMatcher gives you the option to allow students to request to be matched with only specific genders or both genders. This includes, same-sex matching and dual-sex matching.
We have spent COUNTLESS HOURS deciding on a student-safe way of providing same-sex matches. We feel that you will be impressed with the method we chose.
A very important aspect of IntellMatcher is student privacy. When using alternate gender matching, only the students themselves will know what choice they have made.
Example: A female student that chooses to be matched with females only, will receive a list of compatible female students (for "date" matches). Now, unless she shows someone her list, nobody would know of her choice.
Another very important aspect of her list is that there is no direct evidence that the students she was matched with on her list, also chose to be matched with the same (or dual) sex matches. Why? Well, it's sad, but imagine this:
Two students, one male and one female who are against same-sex or dual-sex matching, could intentionally request to be matched with same-sex dates. If IntellMatcher "automatically" only displayed names of other gay students, suddenly these two students now have a list of "all" other gay students in the school (well, at least 10-15 of them). This could be devastating for those students that are not open about their choices.
To prevent this, IntellMatcher needs to keep a balance between "privacy" and "accuracy". It does this by comparing gay students as it would any other student. However, should it find another student that also requested the same type of same-sex or dual-sex matching, the system will increase the compatibility rating of those two students by 20%.
In theory, these other students who requested same-sex or dual-sex matches should then be at the top (or closer to the top) of the student's list. Again, for privacy reasons, there is still no direct evidence that the students at the top of their list are in fact gay, but a 20% increase in their compatibility rating is quite substantial and should float them towards the top. These students would then be able to have a bit more confidence knowing that the potential for a name at the top of their list also being gay is very good.
OK, I'm interested in this feature, but unsure if I can get it approved...
Well, there is still hope. Remember, all information students enter on the questionnaire (including the optional gender selection question) is completely confidential. Without using the alternate gender matching question, the standard result sheet provides both "date" (opposite sex) and "friend" (same sex) matches.
If you feel uncomfortable including this optional question, understand that the result sheet (as it stands) will still be able to provide information for students of alternative lifestyles. Although the "headings" of the result sheets state "dates" for opposite sex matches and "friends" for same sex matches, such a student could simple reverse or ignore the headings and treat each section as the opposite of the other should you choose to not include this question.
There will not however, be any automatic compatibility rating increase (as explained below) because those students will not have the option to choose same-sex or dual-sex matching.