Hi folksTwo of my pet peeves are on this thread:1. I do not know who the email writer "Being Better" is , and also where that person lives. For the purposes of most of these dialogues, this is useful information2. I am setting up a new organization: BTBA (Ban Those Blasted Acronyms)This in response to (lower on the page) the newest one I have discovered through Google means "If I recall Correctly": IIRC3. I also had to google "virtue signaling", which I guessed correctly. Although I continue to waiver about wearing a mask (I am wearing it indoors now because the Albany, NY area is now experiencing a spike in COVID). But after I got the latest Omicron booster and while rates were lower, I was only masking when in tight indoor spaces.I am calling a dance at a wedding Saturday, and at this point, I do not expect to be wearing a mask. But I am already feeling kind of guilty about it.And yes, sometimes during low rates and outdoors, I look at masked people as maybe an example of virtue signaling, but when I think more about it, I realize there could be many many reasons that are none of my business: maybe they are immune compromised, or maybe they really care about protecting others from getting COVID, or maybe it is a way to encourage others to mask and therefore have a better chance of avoiding being infected.Paul RosenbergAlbany, NYJoy Through Traditional Dance & Live Fiddle Music518-482-9255On Wed, Oct 5, 2022 at 1:21 PM Being Better via Organizers <organizers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:In my group our old group had been shut down since 2020 partially because the leadership couldn't agree about covid mitigation policies. In spring of 2022 myself and one of the other people in the group decided to reopen it without any covid policy, just allowing people to do what they felt was best as far as masks, vaccines, tests etc. This approach won't please everyone because some people won't go unless everyone's vaccinated but we have had a pretty good turnout every dance that we've had. We've danced once a month March through June, then took a break and came back in September and will be dancing through December. I've made an effort to avoid spelling out a covid policy in our Facebook group, because I've been afraid that bring it up will get people fighting arguing and debating endlessly about the severity of covid and what should be done about it. I never saw anyone else take this approach, I don't know if it's a good approach, but this is what I do. I've even gone so far as to delete comments where people ask about our covid policy just to keep it off of people's minds. But I do always answer those people through Messenger privately.I'm not aware of anyone who's got covid from my dances, but I don't do contact tracing so I don't know. I used to always bring masks l, not K95 masks, but since no one ever took one anyone wearing a mask always brought their own I threw them out and stopped bringing them.The way I see it is if you think the covid is a serious enough risk to need multiple vaccines and a heavy duty mask then maybe you shouldn't be dancing at all. But if your viewpoint is that covid is just something we're going to have to live with and that the disease has a 98% survival rate, then I don't see what the big deal is just use common sense and and don't allow sick people to come who are obviously sick. I've never had anyone obviously sick, but if someone did come I would just tell them they I couldn't come in.At this point let's admit so much of the mask wearing is just virtue signaling. I've had people tell me they've been exposed to covid and they come wearing a mask by the end of the night they're not wearing it anymore. I've had people come and not wear a mask at my dance, but then they organize a dance in their town and they enforce 95 masks for everybody, including themselves.The way I see it is people's vaccine status is none of my business the issue is so much more complicated than "have you had a vaccine". No one's talking about legitimate valid reasons for people to not get vaccinated. And I personally don't trust rapid covid tests, because I've been pretty darn sure I've had covid but I've never ever tested positive for covid since I started testing.My policies, or non policy, seems to please a lot of people and has been successful so far.On Wed, Oct 5, 2022, 1:12 PM Don Veino via Organizers <organizers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:IIRC, in one of the COVID rescue bills passed, there was a specific exemption for organizations protecting them from suits for people being infected as part of operation.That said, in the US, pretty much anybody can pursue a suit against anyone for anything at any time - the waivers help to discourage such and may help later as evidence of informed consent toward *defending against* the case.-DonOn Wed, Oct 5, 2022, 11:55 AM Lissa Bengtson via Organizers <organizers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:Have there been dance groups sued because someone caught Covid at a dance? Is that what a waiver prevents? How did they prove they caught it at the dance?Lissa BengtsonSan Antonio_______________________________________________Organizers mailing list -- organizers@lists.sharedweight.netTo unsubscribe send an email to organizers-leave@lists.sharedweight.net_______________________________________________Organizers mailing list -- organizers@lists.sharedweight.netTo unsubscribe send an email to organizers-leave@lists.sharedweight.net_______________________________________________Organizers mailing list -- organizers@lists.sharedweight.netTo unsubscribe send an email to organizers-leave@lists.sharedweight.net