ASLOK Thoughts in the Age of Covid

Plans for attending ASLOK XXXV?

  • Wasn't planning on attending anyway...

    Votes: 46 40.0%
  • Will be there, masks or not...

    Votes: 17 14.8%
  • Will be there, but only if masks are required...

    Votes: 1 0.9%
  • Will be there, but only if masks aren't required...

    Votes: 4 3.5%
  • Won't be attending due to Covid, but had been planning on it pre-pandemic...

    Votes: 20 17.4%
  • Might be there - depends on how the pandemic develops by the Fall...

    Votes: 20 17.4%
  • Might be there - depends on non-pandemic things like $, vacation, spousal approval, etc...

    Votes: 7 6.1%

  • Total voters
    115
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pensatl1962

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Constitution of United States of America 1789 (rev. 1992)

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
This is not an absolute right. There are exceptions, due to extraordinary public health emergencies: https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/aboutlawsregulationsquarantineisolation.html. Quarantine/isolation orders ("lockdowns" if you will) preclude peaceably assembling.

Excerpt:
"The federal government derives its authority for isolation and quarantine from the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution [emphasis added]. Under section 361 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S. Code § 264), the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services is authorized to take measures to prevent the entry and spread of communicable diseases from foreign countries into the United States and between states. The authority for carrying out these functions on a daily basis has been delegated to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)."

and:

"States have police power functions to protect the health, safety, and welfare of persons within their borders. To control the spread of disease within their borders, states have laws to enforce the use of isolation and quarantine. These laws can vary from state to state and can be specific or broad. In some states, local health authorities implement state law. In most states, breaking a quarantine order is a criminal misdemeanor. Tribes also have police power authority to take actions that promote the health, safety, and welfare of their own tribal members. Tribal health authorities may enforce their own isolation and quarantine laws within tribal lands, if such laws exist."
 

Eagle4ty

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Please - no politics
Roughly half of all people are below average intelligence. That bigger capacity didn't produce an Einstien, or a Turing, or a DaVinci, or ... -- jim
And with what's been going on in U.S. cities it shows.
 

william.stoppel

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Well, being as Cleveland and Cuyahoga County has mandated mask use when in public anywhere, I think our TH# just went down

OTOH, it MIGHT actually finally slow the spread in time. So we have an acquisition marker if we get the chance to take another shot.
Happy to wear a mask while playing, except when playing Bendis!?
 

Mister T

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Well, being as Cleveland and Cuyahoga County has mandated mask use when in public anywhere, I think our TH# just went down

OTOH, it MIGHT actually finally slow the spread in time. So we have an acquisition marker if we get the chance to take another shot.
Good to see measures taken to tackle the pandemic, it is late but it should eventually percolate in the figures. The question is: would it be in time? This is still possible.
UK was late in taking the right steps but eventually they did it and now the number of new cases is very low. England has just re-opened its borders to all European tourists (EXC: Swedes, Romanians, Bulgarians).
 

Actionjick

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Well, being as Cleveland and Cuyahoga County has mandated mask use when in public anywhere, I think our TH# just went down

OTOH, it MIGHT actually finally slow the spread in time. So we have an acquisition marker if we get the chance to take another shot.
I'm assuming if you play in your rooms masks would not be required.
 

cifdale

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I am not sure if I will attend this year, my wife undergoes foot surgery at the end of July and I have to see how mobile she is and how comfortable she is with me going before I commit to attending. I will also be looking at the state of the pandemic as well. I plan to wear a mask at the gaming table if I go and I am working on my tweezer dexterity for handling counters. And of course no trip to a gaming tournament will be complete without a bottle of hand sanitizer.
 

Bret Hildebran

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ASLOK on hold for now.

Thanks to everyone for all the feedback. Since I posted this query it seems that the US has only had bad news regarding the Corona virus. As such I'm not optimistic at all that we will be able to hold ASLOK this year. I reached out to the hotel and bought us another couple of weeks to decide, but at the moment I am planning on cancelling barring a sudden change in the news. I would expect to come to a final decision by mid-July.

Presuming we do end up cancelling we will likely run a VASL alternative for those interested. Right now we're leaning towards 2 waves of Minis (call them Thursday/Saturday) with the Thursday minis leading to Grofaz play and then Saturday minis for those either not interested in Grofaz or who get knocked out by Saturday. I haven't figured out if we'll do shirts this year or not. More details to come by mid-July.

For anyone that has pre-registered, we will offer to either refund your $ or roll over to next year at your option.

Thanks to everyone who has inquired about finances. At the moment, I'm optimistic that the hotel will basically let us roll over our commitment until next year. Fortunately the hotel really likes our group and values the relationship going forward more than attempting to leverage a one year windfall from us this year. So I think we will be OK financially, but we will see what the fallout is in a couple weeks when I cancel as anticipated.
 

Sparafucil3

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Thanks to everyone who has inquired about finances. At the moment, I'm optimistic that the hotel will basically let us roll over our commitment until next year. Fortunately the hotel really likes our group and values the relationship going forward more than attempting to leverage a one year windfall from us this year. So I think we will be OK financially, but we will see what the fallout is in a couple weeks when I cancel as anticipated.
Please keep us informed on this Bret. You provide an invaluable service to the ASL community. I will gladly support you if they decide to become unreasonable. -- jim
 

Actionjick

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ASLOK on hold for now.

Thanks to everyone for all the feedback. Since I posted this query it seems that the US has only had bad news regarding the Corona virus. As such I'm not optimistic at all that we will be able to hold ASLOK this year. I reached out to the hotel and bought us another couple of weeks to decide, but at the moment I am planning on cancelling barring a sudden change in the news. I would expect to come to a final decision by mid-July.

Presuming we do end up cancelling we will likely run a VASL alternative for those interested. Right now we're leaning towards 2 waves of Minis (call them Thursday/Saturday) with the Thursday minis leading to Grofaz play and then Saturday minis for those either not interested in Grofaz or who get knocked out by Saturday. I haven't figured out if we'll do shirts this year or not. More details to come by mid-July.

For anyone that has pre-registered, we will offer to either refund your $ or roll over to next year at your option.

Thanks to everyone who has inquired about finances. At the moment, I'm optimistic that the hotel will basically let us roll over our commitment until next year. Fortunately the hotel really likes our group and values the relationship going forward more than attempting to leverage a one year windfall from us this year. So I think we will be OK financially, but we will see what the fallout is in a couple weeks when I cancel as anticipated.
Bret I know this is a tough decision. Good luck with the VASL tournaments. If you need anything just ask, I'll do whatever I can and I'm sure the rest of the community will do the same.
 

Actionjick

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ASLOK on hold for now.

Thanks to everyone for all the feedback. Since I posted this query it seems that the US has only had bad news regarding the Corona virus. As such I'm not optimistic at all that we will be able to hold ASLOK this year. I reached out to the hotel and bought us another couple of weeks to decide, but at the moment I am planning on cancelling barring a sudden change in the news. I would expect to come to a final decision by mid-July.

Presuming we do end up cancelling we will likely run a VASL alternative for those interested. Right now we're leaning towards 2 waves of Minis (call them Thursday/Saturday) with the Thursday minis leading to Grofaz play and then Saturday minis for those either not interested in Grofaz or who get knocked out by Saturday. I haven't figured out if we'll do shirts this year or not. More details to come by mid-July.

For anyone that has pre-registered, we will offer to either refund your $ or roll over to next year at your option.

Thanks to everyone who has inquired about finances. At the moment, I'm optimistic that the hotel will basically let us roll over our commitment until next year. Fortunately the hotel really likes our group and values the relationship going forward more than attempting to leverage a one year windfall from us this year. So I think we will be OK financially, but we will see what the fallout is in a couple weeks when I cancel as anticipated.
Why not shirts? I'm sure they would sell.
 

cifdale

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Brett, thank you for everything you and Bill do running ASLOK. If ASLOK is cancelled, hopefully the hotel will be understanding given the state of the Pandemic.
 

aiabx

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Soldiers hunkered down in concealment (shelter in place directives) or a medic station scene or an observation post with someone scanning through binoculars.
Or an image of soldiers running away as fast as heir feet will carry them. The shirt for the ASLOK That Never Was would be a real collector's item.
 
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