We're proud to have had zero cases of covid or other contagious illnesses linked to Scintillation 2022 and 2023 and we aim to continue that streak this year with your help!

We're also very excited that the pandemic era has taught us that con crud is no longer an inevitability, and so we've designed this multi-layered mitigation policy based on the recommendations of the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, which classifies types of policy in order from most to least effective:

(Most effective)

• Elimination - sick people not present
• Substitution - outdoor events instead of indoor
• Engineering Controls - ventilation indoors
• Administrative Controls - vaccine requirements
• Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) - masks

(Least effective)

Elimination

Please don't come if you have any symptoms of anything potentially contagious, whether it's just a cold or flu or covid. You may want to be more careful than usual the week or so before the con so you're less likely to catch something and have to miss out. If you do have symptoms, we'll roll your membership over to next year and we'll all sign a sympathetic postcard to send you but please help us eliminate con crud by not bringing your crud to the con!

If you develop symptoms of anything midway through the con, please stop attending indoor events and let us and anyone you've been in close or prolonged contact with know. We can arrange for a volunteer to help bring you food, painkillers, cold meds, etc as needed. We'll also have covid tests available for any of your contacts (if you've got symptoms, we don't really care if it's covid or not, it still means you're contagious for something and we don't want to make more people sick!)

Substitution

We're hosting this con at a time of year when Montreal weather is congenial to being out of doors and opening windows, and therefore local and regional community transmission of all airborne illnesses is anticipated to be low.

The opening and closing parties (the only food-based con events) will be picnics in parks since outdoor transmission of all airborne illnesses is much less likely.

We encourage attendees to eat other meals at the con out of doors on terrasses or via takeaway, as feasible. If not (e.g. in case of rain), consider also favouring restaurants with a door or window that can be propped open for ventilation.

Engineering

The hotel has a state of the art ventilation system.

We're also adding the following additional supplementary ventilation, strategically targeted to anticipated hot spots including panel tables and the tea room: 2 corsi-rosenthal boxes.

We'll be monitoring the ventilation situation during the con with two CO₂ monitors (CO₂ is a proxy for air exchange, though filtration of infectious particles can still happen without CO₂ exchange) in case we need to turn on additional louder ventilation.

Administrative

We have scheduled panels with breaks of 15 minutes between them to allow the ventilation systems time to recirculate air between panels and to allow attendees time for outdoor/sensory/movement/social breaks as needed.

We require everyone attending the con to be vaccinated against covid. We encourage people to take advantage of whatever covid and/or flu boosters they're eligible for, and if you're particularly worried you may want to consider getting a booster a few weeks before the event.

We encourage everyone to continue to wash your hands frequently and well, although we've learned covid isn't really spread through touching surfaces, norovirus still is and that one tears through groups of people in close quarters and sucks a lot.

Personal Protective Equipment

We encourage attendees to mask on airplanes, trains, buses, and other public transport and stations on the way to and from the con so you don't pick up something on the way.

We require attendees to wear good masks (N95, KN95, etc) in common con areas including lobbies except for the circumstances listed below. We'll have extra masks at registration and in the tea room if you need them.

Exceptions:

• panelists when seated at the panel table during a panel.
• all attendees for brief sips of liquid or quick bites of food (not for an extended period, for hanging out unmasked please head outside, there are several nearby areas with benches and other seating).

We're pleased to have avoided many colds and flus and general con cruds as a result of covid mitigation policies, so we hope to help create a world in which we can keep hanging out with our friends and meeting new friends while not getting each other sick with respiratory illnesses, especially by normalizing systematic interventions like staying home when sick and cleaning indoor air like we clean water.

No single one of these mitigation strategies represents complete prevention on its own, and each of them takes some effort by some people, but together several strategies can dramatically reduce risk of transmitting airborne illness while at the same time allowing us to balance other needs (e.g. sensory, hydration). Thank you to all of the people who have contributed additional air purifiers (including the hotel for having installed an excellent HVAC system in the first place), CO₂ monitors, covid tests, masks, and of course to all of you for cooperating, especially people who make the prosocial choice to not attend when ill (please text those people extra nice messages of appreciation and maybe offer to bring them Montréal treats if you can!).

We would love to see more events adopt the principles of this multi-layered policy with attention to levels of effectiveness even if local circumstances mean that not all points above are feasible in exactly the same way. To that end, we are happy for anyone else to take and adapt this policy and the spirit behind it to your events!