Months ago, we had planned to hold the reception in the "park" on campus where students later put up their encampment, that administrators & police then removed. It would have felt awful to hold it there under these circumstances, so we moved to a state park a few miles away with oil extraction as backdrop for the recreational setting.
My heroic colleague bought snacks and beverages and and served them out of his trunk, which saved us probably $19,000 too.
So here’s why we held reception outdoors: this morning someone who was in attendance reported that their partner woke up today with Covid. They have now stayed home from conf today out of abundance of caution, but people were probably exposed or would have been indoors
We also have a mask policy for indoor conference spaces (it’s required) but compliance has been low so… this is why I haven’t been doing in-person conferences and will continue to abstain 😷😩#Petrocultures2024#CovidIsNotOver
@kdnyhan We're sending an email reminder for day 2, but it's honestly seeming very hard with norms being where they are. I'm not surprised but I'm very, very bummed out
@SRLevine@kdnyhan I personally brought in 400 KN95s, and we set them at reception and emailed out an accessibility policy, and... *nearly everyone just ignored all of it.
*one of the fellow organizers who would not have worn one did step up, so I have to acknowledge that. I've seen a couple others but I assume it's people doing it as "personal choice"?
@athena I was just about to ping you. An email will go out but I'm despairing. i wound up leaving early. I was sitting in a classroom, only masked person, and was just like I fucking don't need this.
I also know our communications to remind people would have been more proactive if we hadn't been in such crisis mode. Very disheartening but I do also blame us.
To his credit one of the event organizers who wouldn't have masked w/o request did so. Tho puzzlingly/enragingly, another did not.
An email just went out reminding everyone. It's been a particularly challenging conference (with a lot of communication from us because of shifting circumstances); and I hope that low compliance was basically an oversight/communication misfire.
I guess we'll find out tomorrow.
(We now have a confirmed case amongst last night's reception attendees, too--but I think a lot of people don't care themselves, so the question is how to nudge that it's not just about them, themselves)
Today, I’m happy to report, masking went wayyy up. Not perfect but most people just needed a reminder. Hope is not lost. #Petrocultures2024#CovidIsNotOver
In a different world I might be posting more about people’s talks but that’s not the world in which I find myself.
Howver, today’s plenary was a hastily-organized roundtable on the politics of divestment from people who’ve organized divestment campaigns at #USC and elsewhere, glad it came together #Petrocultures2024
The final challenge: getting masked people to not reflexively lower their masks to speak
Add comment