View Poll Results: Are you planning to attend SELEM 2020 (Aug 4 - 9)?

Voters
26. You may not vote on this poll
  • Yes. As long as the lockdown is lifted I will be there.

    15 57.69%
  • Unsure. First need to see what happens with COVID-19, my job, etc.

    8 30.77%
  • No. It is too risky, both financially and health-wise.

    3 11.54%
Page 1 of 6 12345 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 53

Thread: Are you planning to attend SELEM 2020?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Charleston, SC
    Posts
    2,147,489,446

    Question Are you planning to attend SELEM 2020?

    There is still a great deal of uncertainty regarding SELEM this year. The schools are closed, so we can't get any answers regarding the gym or the cafeteria, and the ban on public gatherings means that the auditorium staff is also unavailable to answer questions. Despite that fact, I'm willing to take things on faith (assuming that the travel ban and lockdowns are lifted in time) and deal with the possibility that we might not have all the spaces we planned for. I'm confident we can adapt to just about anything.

    The greater concern is the possibility that the lockdown might *not* be lifted in time for SELEM (or more likely, the lockdown is lifted too early and then is reinstated just before SELEM starts). And while I want SELEM to happen as much as anyone, I must balance my enthusiasm against the risk of someone falling ill as a result of attending the event.

    For now I do not want to start accepting registration fees. I don't want to collect a bunch of money only to have to refund it. Instead I'm posting this poll to get an idea as to how many people might be able to attend this year.

    Assuming that SELEM does happen this year, when I open up the registration there will be just one price instead of the tiered registration fees we normally have. That may hurt us on the budget, but I'm prepared to deal with that. (We may not be able to afford to buy as many door prizes as a result.)

    Adam
    Last edited by buffo; 04-28-2020 at 04:21.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Posts
    73

    Default

    I want to say "yes, as long as the lockdown is lifted..." but I have limited confidence that restrictions will be lifted when it is actually prudent to do so, as opposed to whenever the politicians give in to the pressure to reopen, public health be damned. (For the record, I don't know how NC's response to the whole situation has been.)

    So it's more like "Yes, as long as the lockdown is lifted and it actually seems reasonably safe to even have the event." I recognize that isn't a very actionable metric for you, since everyone is going to have different thresholds for 'seems reasonably safe', but it's the best I got.

    If it does happen this year (and I hope it does, albeit safely!) then we should make a concerted effort to be prudent about interpersonal contact, and probably rearrange the way things are done to avoid the usual dense crowding we get at certain points (especially meal times). Even when the risk of another outbreak becomes low enough that we can have SELEM, it will be definitively non-zero for a long time.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2016
    Location
    Bay Area, CA
    Posts
    102

    Unhappy

    ^^^^

    Totally second this. Was really looking forward to attending again, but I am concerned that even if we are told it is "safe" by politicians with no medical background, it would not be worth the risk. I would say attending on the condition that the order was lifted before the event and medical advisors and evidence pointed towards small gatherings being safe.

    Looking online, it looks like NC extended their order until May 8th, but who knows.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2015
    Location
    Portland, OR
    Posts
    89

    Default

    Right now I feel it's too uncertain to committing to go this year.
    I don't know about you guys but things are still very grim around here.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Essex, UK
    Posts
    8,648

    Default

    No. ..
    Eat Sleep Lase Repeat

  6. #6
    Bradfo69's Avatar
    Bradfo69 is offline Pending BST Forum Purchases: $47,127,283.53
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Location
    Wilmington, DE
    Posts
    6,202

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by andy_con View Post
    No. ..
    If you start paddling now, the virus will be gone by the time you hit our shores. See? Win, win.
    PM Sent...

  7. #7
    Bradfo69's Avatar
    Bradfo69 is offline Pending BST Forum Purchases: $47,127,283.53
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Location
    Wilmington, DE
    Posts
    6,202

    Default

    I already voted but, you already know I'll be there if it's allowed.
    PM Sent...

  8. #8
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Connecticut
    Posts
    884

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by aberry View Post
    I want to say "yes, as long as the lockdown is lifted..." but I have limited confidence that restrictions will be lifted when it is actually prudent to do so, as opposed to whenever the politicians give in to the pressure to reopen, public health be damned. (For the record, I don't know how NC's response to the whole situation has been.)

    So it's more like "Yes, as long as the lockdown is lifted and it actually seems reasonably safe to even have the event." I recognize that isn't a very actionable metric for you, since everyone is going to have different thresholds for 'seems reasonably safe', but it's the best I got.
    This is exactly where I am as well.

    Quote Originally Posted by aberry View Post
    If it does happen this year (and I hope it does, albeit safely!) then we should make a concerted effort to be prudent about interpersonal contact, and probably rearrange the way things are done to avoid the usual dense crowding we get at certain points (especially meal times). Even when the risk of another outbreak becomes low enough that we can have SELEM, it will be definitively non-zero for a long time.
    I think this would be really, really hard to do, if there's still any possible risk of transmission. SELEM (to me) is all about the interpersonal contact and small, close groups. If even one person is an asymptomatic carrier, over a week's time, a lot of people could pick it up (but that doesn't mean they'd get sick, of course).

    I guess this falls into the "we have to wait and see" bucket, but until there's universal testing to know exactly how many people are asymptomatic carriers, my own personal opinion is that it's too risky for me (which I'd hate, of course, I really don't want this to be true). Unless there's a successful treatment or a vaccine available by August, which in IMH(NS)O pretty unlikely. So I'm voting "unsure". Definitely not a "no", but can't say "yes" just yet. Sorry buffo.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Cleveland Ohio
    Posts
    2,599

    Default

    Sorry I’m passing this year. Too many considerations way beyond virus this year. While the virus is an issue, I got to deal with the mess left behind now.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Charleston, SC
    Posts
    2,147,489,446

    Default

    I appreciate all the responses so far; please keep them coming. Also, for the record: no one should feel sorry for sharing their honest concerns about this event. COVID-19 has killed over 220,000 people so far, and more than a quarter of those deaths have been right here in the USA. This is deadly serious business!

    Andrew, I completely agree with your comments. Just because the travel restrictions are lifted doesn't mean it's "safe". Safety is all about risk management and we all have different ideas about what "acceptable risk" looks like. Furthermore, if they release the lockdown to soon we are very likely to experience a *large* spike in new cases. That's pretty much the worst-case scenario in my mind. So it's possible that SELEM could still be cancelled even if the travel ban is lifted.

    Limiting personal contact at SELEM would indeed be difficult. There are a few things we could change to help spread people out, but it's not going to work for all cases. Plus there's a good chance we won't be able to access the gym, which would create more of a space crunch. Bottom line: If social distancing is still deemed necessary in August that will force me to cancel SELEM.

    Something that has been suggested by several folks here on the forum is to host a "virtual SELEM" using something like the ZOOM video chat software. We'd need to line up several presenters who would be willing to put on a live broadcast dealing with a given topic, and then everyone could tune in to the presentations that they wanted to watch. We'd also have a general "meeting channel" where people could go to just talk shop and catch up with everyone. I'm sure we could make this work given enough preparation, so as we get closer if it looks like SELEM is a bust I'll start working on alternatives like this.

    Adam

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •