If you’re still anxious being around so many people, we hear you. We’ll be doing what we can to make everyone as safe as possible.
You might consider doing a RAT for the safety of your colleagues (and, the reassurance of any who might be particularly apprehensive), both before the conference and each day.
If you feel ill at any point, or know you are covid/flu positive, please do not come to the workshop. If you’re in a motel, let your supervisor/peers know by phone, and ask them to alert one of the FLEET Operations Team. We can arrange to drop off a RAT test at your accommodation (but even if you test negative by RAT you may be covid positive, or you may have influenza, so please do not re-enter shared areas until you’ve tested negative and you feel better).
We have facilities for online attendance, and can quickly dial you in so you won’t miss anything.
You may want to resist the urge to shake hands
Please consider wearing a masks, particularly in group situations where you cannot maintain physical distance for example while we’re all listening to talks in the main, large shared conference room. If you want to remove the masks while speaking to others, that’s your decision. We don’t expect you to wear a mask during meals (if you’re worried about that, it should be possible to eat outside at least during lunch breaks, and hopefully dinner too).
Face masks are no longer mandatory in most public areas. If others choose to wear masks, please respect their choice!
Physical distancing is challenging at a workshop. If you feel more comfortable staying further away from others, there will be standing space around the perimeter of the large shared room, and you are welcome to move your chair. Note there are no longer any capacity/density limits in place.
If you do come down with covid or the flu while at the workshop you may have to stay in town a week. We’ll make sure you’re looked after until your home uni/insurance kicks in. As well as letting the FLEET Ops Team know at FLEETcentre@monash.edu, you or your supervisor should alert your uni (see links below).
We will not have check-in facilities, but will maintain lists of attendees via registration, should we need to notify close contacts of a confirmed case. While there are no legal or venue requirements regarding notification in Victoria, we or the venue will let you know if you have been in contact with a case of covid or influenza, while maintaining privacy, as we know some people have specific factors (eg, immune-compromised family members).
Links
- UOW UOW has a COVID safe campus transition plan
- Monash notification link, email, Employee Assistance Program (EAP) / Uni counselling services / events travel/insurance.
- UNSW notification / travel
- ANU advice/notification link
- UQ coronavirus info / if you test positive at work / claims related to COVID-19 / FAQs
- SUT resources/notification requirements
- RMIT notification link / email
Rationale We’re hoping these guidelines make sense, and that they strike the right balance between safety, making colleagues feel safe, and common sense. We’re going a bit above and beyond the bare minimums of state law and venue regulations.
We know these guidelines won’t eliminate any chance of transmission during the event. It’s absolutely true that you wearing a mask during talks on Monday won’t stop someone else getting covid during lunch on Wednesday. However (and speaking to physicists here), we believe that given an unknown ‘input’ on Monday of X0 infected people, these guidelines will result in fewer infected people as a workshop ‘output’ on Friday.
We’ve made a conscious decision to facilitate online attendance, because even though we have missed you all and want to see you in person, we don’t want to force anyone to come who doesn’t feel safe.