post-baitcon feedback

[quietann.livejournal.com]

My personal issues with baitcon are in my personal journal; however, there are a few things that IMHO need to change:

• Separate dishes/mixing equipment/etc. for any ice cream product containing meat. There are a lot of people involved who nominally keep kosher, and it's discomfiting to know that one's ice cream might have been prepared using the same equipment as, say, the chicken liver ice cream. (for that matter, I'd just ban meat-containing flavors entirely, but that's not my decision to make.)
  
• More whole wheat (not just wheat, whole wheat) bread, less white bread. We ran out of whole wheat by lunch on Saturday. (this suggestion passed on from Gregorian, who was amazingly polite about it, but still really would have preferred whole wheat bread for his peanut butter sandwich...)
  
• More tarpage for shade protection (may not be an issue if baitcon isn't at Mink Hollow anymore, but...)
  
• Re-reinforcement of the "modest dress" (ahem) requirement in and around the main area. There was one person in particular who seriously violated this. (insert serious snarkage here; I am trying to be polite.) Dancing naked in the rain, as usual, should be granted leniency.
  

Comments

[mycroft.livejournal.com]

I'm going to make a coherent set of recommendations:

1) I don't think it's possible to prevent cross-contamination in any general sense. Yes, we could possibly "solve" the milk-meat "issue," but it's actually the least important cross-contamination issue. It does nothing to deal with peanut, mango, blueberry, or other allergies. In practice, completely isolating all of the possible allergens would require considerably more work (I'm guessing 2-3 times as much) due to additional cleaning and sanitizing of tools, scoops, etc. Furthermore, it would make the whole serving process take much longer.

That said, I'm all for people labeling their particular concoctions with a full ingredient list. And people with food issues should READ it -- e.g. there's no excuse for not knowing there is prosciutto in an ice cream, since it's clearly in the name of the ice cream. If there's no label, don't eat it. In fact, if you're really frightened by the whole thing, don't eat any of it. There's no rule that you have to!

But most importantly, please do not presume to speak for other people. If it's not personally an issue for you, then let people for whom it is an issue speak up. You do not need to be a "voice of reason" -- that way lies ridiculous things like schools banning Halloween decor because "it might offend witches."

2) Again, please do not presume to speak for other people. By presenting it this way, you are making it sound like a big issue, which I seriously doubt it was for Gregorian. A polite suggestion would have been better placed. Even better, an offer to go get some more whole wheat bread would have been much better placed. It's hard to plan for everything.

3) Uh, you're camping. Bring your own. Seriously. Even better, offer something constructive, like, "Next time I'll bring a canopy to share with other people."

4) In 12 years (not all of which I've attended), this is the first I've ever heard of such a thing. Furthermore, I know for a fact that at both of the previous two Baitcons, and even this one, a number of other people were nude at various points near the house. In fact, one person (female) has been known to run around and play with little kids while butt naked. I've never heard a complaint about this before. This leads me to believe that this is an issue with a specific person, that is being exaggerated into a general rule. It seems to me (especially given the outright applause during the rain) that people are not only generally comfortable with the current level of nudity, but actually like it. If you don't, then perhaps you should try not to look.