COVID policy for our team retreat

[choldgraf]

We should define a testing and/or masking policy to minimize potential COVID risk to our team during the retreat. We can titrate this up or down based on the comfort level of our team and the current COVID situation as of ~late April.

- [ ] Get feedback from our team about any concerns or constraints they think we should take for this meeting.
- [ ] Decide on a COVID policy

Some questions to consider

• Should we require a non-rapid test after travel?
• Should we require rapid tests each day?
• Do we require masking when meeting together as a team?
• Do we avoid certain locations in team meetings? (e.g., crowded bars)

Resources

• IETF covid mitigation analysis for their event
• UK Collaborations Workshop COVID policy
• How to throw a company offsite in a post-COVID world

[sgibson91]

Do we require masking when meeting together as a team?

If even one person says they want masking, publicly or privately, then yes make this a requirement.

[choldgraf]

I think that is a reasonable approach. Just a note that nobody has provided a private or public opinion on this yet.

[GeorgianaElena]

Just a note that nobody has provided a private or public opinion on this yet.

Where is feedback about this expected?

[choldgraf]

In this issue or in a DM. Would it be better if I created a Google Form for this?

[GeorgianaElena]

Would it be better if I created a Google Form for this?

I believe that would make it more clear what are the options being considered and simpler to aggregate. Also, I believe we should provide enough time so that everyone at 2i2c that's participating to provide their option about this one, and make sure everyone is comfortable.

[choldgraf]

OK let me whip together a quick survey and share it with the team later today (CET).

[GeorgianaElena]

@choldgraf, thank you very much! I'm sorry to be proposing extra work :(

[choldgraf]

It's OK - I think it's important that everybody on the team feels comfortable at this meeting and I appreciate the thoughtfulness that you and others are putting into this.

BTW, two social media posts asking for feedback in case others are interested or want to signal boost:

• https://hachyderm.io/@choldgraf/110105965427049382
• https://twitter.com/choldgraf/status/1641016302432055297

[damianavila]

If even one person says they want masking, publicly or privately, then yes make this a requirement.

First, I think this proposal can be applied to multiple pieces: masks, vaccine shots, rapid tests, etc.

Now providing my two cents as a former biochemist (with multiple contacts with doctors) and having read a lot of scientific papers about it: if everyone is vaccinated, we should be totally safe without masking or rapid tests.

But again, this is just additional context, I still believe @sgibson91's proposal is the way to go!

[choldgraf]

Questionnaire for team members to provide feedback

Hey all - @jmunroe and I have put together this very short questionnaire to gauge how our team feels about COVID policies. Responses will only be available to myself and James. We'll use this to define a proposed policy for y'all to provide feedback on as well.

Link to the questionnaire about COVID policy.

[choldgraf]

A few resources from responses on Hachyderm (linked in top comment as well)

• IETF covid mitigation analysis for their event
• UK Collaborations Workshop COVID policy
• How to throw a company offsite in a post-COVID world

[choldgraf]

A few notes from reading https://charity.wtf/2023/02/28/how-to-throw-a-company-offsite-in-a-post-covid-world/

ensure outdoor seating options as much as possible

assume people will be overwhelmed esp if this is the first in-person meeting in a while

masks were available but optional, and social norm to put them on if anybody around asked

daily rapid testing available for everyone, mandatory every 48 hrs

good quote:

Take care of yourselves. Do what you need to do to be fully present while you’re here, rather than here 100% of the time.

This means:

• We scheduled only three sessions per day, plus lunch and dinner
• We set aside a “Recharge Room” with doors that closed, with nail polish, coloring books and markers, and board games.

And their summaries:

• Outdoor spaces for eating, temperate climate, extra-spacious rooms for circulatory purposes.
• The rapid-nucleic tests we used were made by Lucira. (Liz says: “The tests were far more reliable than we thought they’d be — the brand has a reputation for false positives but we saw none, and only 3 invalid tests out of several hundred performed.”)
• Testing. We were hyper-diligent about testing. We actually ran out of tests on Wednesday, despite provisioning two for each attendee and a bunch of extras, and had to emergency lift in more, which is a great sign.
• Taking a layered approach to COVID safety. Not relying on any single prevention method meant that if one didn’t work well, we still had a safety net.
• Having a knowledgeable COVID czar.
• The Recharge Room with nail polish, art supplies and games worked really well, although designating other areas as “Quiet Zones” was ineffective and unnecessary.

What we can improve on

• The 30-60 minute breaks sprinkled throughout the day were well-intentioned, but ineffective. Everybody was fucking wiped by late afternoon. Next time, I would replace all those breaks with one solid “Nap Break” from 4-6pm.
• I think it’s important to acknowledge that we were all going to be flattened no matter what though. We aren’t used to this! It is HARD to leave the party to take care of yourself!
• We should have a team of COVID safety marshals, in addition to the Code of Conduct team.
• Next time we will ask people to submit their COVID test results — even if it’s just dropping a pic in a slack channel. Trust but verify.
• The CO2 monitors were confusing. They were hard to find, and most of them got installed in the wrong place. Also, the 650 ppm rule would have essentially meant everyone had to wear a mask in any closed room, which was not the goal. Our error here was not in failing to stick to the 650 ppm rule, but in making a rule we couldn’t keep.
• Next year, we will be explicit about the fact that CO2 monitors are for informational purposes, so individuals can factor it into their own masking choices and/or decide whether to move outside.
• Next year we will also emphasize that it is okay to ask the people around you to mask up so you can participate.
• If you aren’t comfortable asking those around you to put on a mask, you can DM a safety marshal who will ask on your behalf.
• One session in particular had external facilitators come in and roam around the (closed) rooms shouting stuff. They tested clear for COVID, but in retrospect I really wish we had asked them to mask up, as it generated a lot of anxiety. This was our biggest covid safety lapse, in my opinion.

[choldgraf]

Suggested policy

Here's the outline of a suggested COVID policy. Please provide comments. We'll formalize this if there objections or formal requests to change it:

What we'll provide

• Rapid tests for each team member for each day of our team meeting.
• FFP2 masks for each team member (FFP2 is the French equivalent of N95)

Before arriving

• Everybody must confirm that they have been vaccinated or had COVID in the last 9 months.

Each day of team meetings

• Everybody takes a rapid test and texts a pic to a #team-meeting channel before the day begins.
• Everybody wears an FFP2 mask while we are inside during the meeting
• This applies to anybody participating in the meeting, including external facilitators
• If a team member feels uncomfortable or overwhelmed, they are not required to attend all team meeting sessions. If you expect to miss a significant chunk of the meeting, please inform @choldgraf.

Informal time outside of meetings

• We'll try to plan for dinners and/or lunch outside, weather and venue permitting.
  • We will be near the Canal St. Martin and the temperature should be nice outside, so generally we will try to take meals there.
• Dinners are not mandated and we should focus this time on informally connecting with one another rather than making decisions or discussing things that we haven't covered in person.
• These might happen throughout the week as well, but again will be on an "if you want" basis.
• Guests are allowed at these events

If somebody tests positive for COVID

• If anybody tests positive for COVID within 48 hours of our team meeting, notify the team via Slack, or choldgraf if you prefer to notify privately.
• Anyone who tests positive won't attend any of our in-person meetings. We'll take notes and share them to invite asynchronous feedback if so.
• For travel arrangements etc, see: https://github.com/2i2c-org/team-compass/issues/713

Attending JupyterCon

• Team members are not required to attend JupyterCon if they do not feel comfortable with the health standards of the conference.

EDIT: Some other questions answered after feedback

How does reporting happen?

We will trust team members to self-report the results of tests or their vaccination status. This will be done either via a slack channel in public or private as team members wish.

[pnasrat]

Could you clarify if yoiu mean vaccinated within last 9 months also or is it either (vaccinated) or (covid last 9 months)

[choldgraf]

A few people pinged me about that uncertainty, sorry for the confusion.

Here's more precise language:

Vaccinated ever, or had COVID within the last 9 months.

Here's my rationale in case that helps: The CDC currently defines "vaccinated" as anybody that has every gotten a COVID vaccine. They strongly recommend in addition having one dose of the "updated" booster (the one that was made after more modern variants). Access to the original COVID vaccine is fairly ubiquitous, though access to boosters varies from country to country. For example, in France I don't believe that a second booster has been easily available for the last year or so, unless you're part of an "at risk" population. So:

Given that we don't have much time before this team meeting, that some team members may not have gotten a booster in the last year while still following their country's guidelines, and that getting a booster before the team meeting may be logistically difficult given appointment times etc, we should mandate vaccination but not within the last 9 months. We further mitigate the risk of COVID transmission primarily by asking team members to do daily tests and wear N95-equivalent masks while in team meetings (provided by 2i2c if team members don't already have them).

[damianavila]

The suggested policy LGTM.

[choldgraf]

Policy written up in our agenda

I've written up a version of this COVID policy for an agenda document I'm creating for the meeting. If you have feedback or comments, please provide it there and we can continue to iterate on the language/policy if need be. I'll close this issue for now, and will add comments if we make substantial changes to the policy in follow-up comments.

Agenda w/ COVID policy