12 20 21. That’s just fun.
So – at a board meeting last night for a folk organization I’m involved with we spiral into the now monthly conversation about what we’re going to do about COVID, whether audiences are ready to come back, stay back… etc.
And there’s a lot of board banter because it’s the board of an organization, not understanding what their role is here.
They’ve sent out a survey gauging their audience’s comfort level. They’ve consulted the guy with the medical degree on the board about what’s a good plan, and they’ve poled one another about their personal comfort levels. Shows are roaring back and so is Omicron, no-one really knows the way forward and I feel like… as community leaders, as the people asking people to gather and as, in theory, people who CARE about that community… it’s not about what the community wants to do or is willing to risk, and it’s not even about what we personally are interested in doing – it’s much more about what’s safe and how do you lead people through the darkness.
I think music’s a positive for people, maybe even a neccessity – but deciding in what ways that’s safe is really important. My own thoughts are that ideally we’d be encouraging our audiences to self-test, upgrade our concept of “fully vaccinated” as meaning “with booster” and require masking in the venues. Add in community-based ideas like “proceeds go towards providing testing in the community” and add-ons like branded masks… but I’m so exhausted by it all and I had to run because…
… I had to get to one of the best open mics we’ve had in a very, very long time.