Arden contra (in Delaware) has a policy that's very similar to Montelier's, and for the same reasons. We surveyed this fall and dropped our vaccine requirement, and we'll survey our community again this month. Without a significant change to our understanding on transmission risk difference between vaccinated and unvaccinated people, we won't consider re-excluding unvaccinated people. If it's not safe enough to dance for community conditions and hospitals, we'll postpone dances.

Whole policy:

- vaccines strongly encouraged
- masks required
- hall with excellent ventilation
- contact tracing with mandatory info collection, system run by a responsible person outside the community, announced at the dance and in a follow-up email
- announcement that if anyone feels sick after the dance, we expect them to get tested ASAP
- rapid tests available to those without access

Thankfully we haven't had any known transmission yet since restarting in March 2022. We average around 40 attendees per dance.

I agree with Julian, I hope every local area has a space that's taking all precautions available, and it also makes sense to me to have mask-optional dances if there is no foreseeable change to covid risk.

Thanks for the thread, everyone - it's useful to see what other dances are doing.
Laura Alexander

On Sat, Jan 7, 2023 at 12:13 AM Walker Sloan via Organizers <organizers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Another pebble in the pond --

*  Current booster verified
*  N95, KN95, KF94 required
*  Request cases to be reported back to the organizers
*  Emails collected to report cases anonymously to the community
*  Max venue ventilation -- cold drafts this time of year in the North

NONE of these is sufficient to prevent Covid.  ALL of them help reduce
transmission.

None of us organizers volunteered to be public health officials.  And
certainly not protocol cops.  But it makes sense for us to STACK THE
ODDS as high as possible in favor of COMMUNITY health.

Maximizing community safety takes precedence over individual preference.

That's the most responsible way to organize a dance.  Not just for the
benefit of our dancers, but also for the greater community in which all
of our dancers live.

Mac Sloan
Thursday Night Dance, Concord Scout House, MA





Walker Sloan
sloan@medevelop.com

On 23/01/06 11:18 PM, Julian Blechner via Organizers wrote:
> Question for anyone with the "you will alienate someone" or "everyone
> has a different level of risk" mindset:
> In other areas of life, do you consider someone's personal preference
> (like not wearing a mask) the same as someone's health needs (like
> having a health condition, or a family member who does)?
>
> Like, how is this "both sides have a preference" narrative any different
> from able-bodied people being like "Oh, well, I just don't like
> handicapped ramps, I prefer steps"?
> I'm not asking to be mean or rude. I genuinely would love an explanation.
>
> I think there actually _is_ a way to please most people, and not just
> disregard people with medical conditions (or family with them).
> That is - making sure no area's dances are all mask-optional.
> There's a big difference between an area having _some_ mask-optional
> dances, sure, but if they're _all_ mask-optional.
>
> Thanks,
> Julian Blechner
>
> On Fri, Jan 6, 2023 at 5:56 PM John and/or Jan Bloom via Organizers
> <organizers@lists.sharedweight.net
> <mailto:organizers@lists.sharedweight.net>> wrote:
>
>     As Alan said,  whatever you do you will alienate someone.
>
>     What I did with the Brunswick ECD was to ask all of the dancers
>        - would you dance if masks were required
>        - would you dance if masks were optional
>     and so on.
>
>     Then I picked the rules that maximized the number of dancers.
>
>     I realize that this is harder for Contra, where you have a lot of
>     dancers that you can't ask, including potential future dancers.   
>     But in my case it seemed like the right way to do it.
>
>     John Bloom
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