O'micron is quick

[natacha]

Ok, not sure if it is a biased viewpoint, but I feel Omicron is all over the place and spreading super quickly it feels everyone is sick around… Apparently it is not as dangerous as previous versions, but it is everywhere.
It will probably go quick and chances are that many people will not be sick anymore beginning of february.

I am wondering if it would be a good idea to postpone OFFDEM by one month until the first week-end of march.

• It will allow us to better organise
• This year FOSDEM is online again, therefore FOSDEM participants are not coming to Brussels anyways, and this would allow maybe for some people to join who would have been otherwise taken by online event.
• It will certainly feel more peacefull as we will be a bit more distant from the crazy period of sickness.

What do people think feedbacl welcome… I will equally make such a post on DREAM forum and OFFDEM deltachat channel

[how]

Indeed there’s no urgency to stick to the FOSDEM dates. It might even bring people to the city that will have attended FOSDEM online.

It’s important to have this discussion especially as participants can reschedule their journeys. Somewhere around 21st of March would be best if we like to stick to Spring. Best to lookup anyway scheduled dates for other events and chose the best dates for our people.

[how]

So we seem to have a consensus around the first week-end of March, which happens to be 5 and 6, as for February, delaying the event one month.

[XavCC]

By the way,
shall we extend CFP deadline too?

And according to misterfish, what about adding “some kind of masking policy and a good plan for ventilation.” in event description?

[how]

C’est bien de conserver la date de rendu au 20 janvier, cela permet de voir qui est engagé. On pourra toujours la repousser jusque fin janvier ou mi-février.

Nous avons déjà eu des dispositions vis à vis des règles sanitaires en 2021, il serait bon de les travailler un peu. Pas sûr de vouloir passer 2 jours avec un masque sur la tronche, mais j’aurai mon système immunitaire à fond, donc cela ne compte pas. Il faut aussi s’accorder avec les règles locales également.

@system

Safety Measures

Confident with the grassroots experience dealing with health issues and safety, OFFDEM will support safe spaces for an enjoyable gathering. With time grassroots organizations have developed the capacity of self-organizing health and safety measures, for example when facing different risks associated to HIV contamination or drug abuse, by organizing within the most concerned groups.

Mandatory Registration

Given the context of “global pandemy” and the accompanying safetyrepressive security measures taken by States everywhere, we need to know in advance who’sif you’re coming so we can track the event capacity and avoid having to deal with too much affluence.

Mandatory registration is also useful to prepare yourself to the event—see Hygiene and Health section below. As a first step we encourage you to join the @offdem.supporters group so you can keep in touch with the organization. As at OFFDEM, everyone is a user, team members will get priority in case we must select attendees. Your active participation will be taken into account towards figuring out the attendees list in case of overflow.

Travel Conditions

Due to current conditions we’re expecting mostly local attendance. If you’re coming from abroad, ensure you can make it. Keep in touch with our team for any travel restriction we can help you with.

Hygiene and Health

If you intend to come we count on your responsibility to minimize the risks for yourself and others. We recommend taking extra care of your and your close ones’ health prior to the gathering, and when you return. There’s no total risk avoidance, but using your brains and practicing good hygiene should be enough to prevent further contamination.

1. Stigmergy is a principle that acknowledges for the inspiring capacity of the traces that persists behind people and after actions emulating responses in the form of new ideas and further actions. ︎