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

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

I think that asking for the level of care that, say, a Chinese restaurant has for ensuring that dishes are clean before use is not a problem. People are very good about washing and disinfecting things at Baitcon (I wasn't able to attend this year due to pregnancy, but I try to take at least one turn at dishwashing every time I'm able to come).

Agreed, and I believe that this is basically the status quo right now.

The issue is things that can't be washed easily, or can't be washed right away. The water has meat in it after the very first rinse and therefore isn't useful for rinsing the scoop thereafter.

Isn't useful to who? I'm not getting a good sense of scale match between the size of the group of people having problems (so far two attendees and one non-attendee due to kashrut issues, and an unknown number of hypothetical vegetarians) and the proposed solutions (seperate table for meat ice creams; banning meat ice creams) here. If it's just a handful of people, I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that bringing your own scoop is a simple and effective solution. If it's more than a handful, it's time for one or more of them to step up and volunteer to handle the extra organizing that a large solution will entail.

[gingicat]

Well, I can think of at least six people offhand (including myself and my husband, who admittedly haven't been in a while) who keep meat-milk separation in some fashion but are okay with eating Baitcon food.

I can think of at least two vegans who have attended past Baitcons but weren't at this one.

So yes, it's a small sample size, but it's the sort of thing I did automatically for people long before I kept meat-milk separation rules myself. Consider it akin to making sure the person allergic to mushrooms doesn't get anything that touches the mushrooms. There may be only one person with that allergy, but making sure zie doesn't go into anaphylactic shock is still well worth the effort. Kashrut and veganism are conscious choices, but no less mentally important to the people who practice them.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

:smile:
I suppose the question also becomes "just how many meat ice creams are we expecting?" If the answer is less than maybe 6, they'd all fit on one of the port-a-tables some people bring to keep in a large tent.

Thing is, for anyone who would prefer to not even accidentally eat meat, bringing their own scoop isn't really a solution. Scoops don't get washed off all the way and sometimes scoops don't get washed off at all between flavours.

If I can make it to next Baitcon I'd be happy to spend some time attempting to acquire a few brightly coloured scoops-for-a-meat-area should it seem necessary.

Or, honestly, it would likely be sufficient to put a band of red duct tape around the pack tubs of the few meat flavours then group them together at serving (I mean, hell, we only had two this year) and add a band of red duct tape around an associated scoop or two. Nobody who has issues with meat accidentally serves hirself any nor worries that the meat's gotten onto whatever sie is eating.

The freeze bucket and stirrer get washed/disinfected anyway.

If the forces that be [hopefully] make there be a next year's Baitcon that I can attend I'll be happy to tote some coloured duct tape and extra scoops.

vegetarian datapoint

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Personally, I'd really prefer not to use the same scooper in non-meat ice cream after it was used in meat ice cream, unless it was thoroughly washed, not just rinsed.

The number of meat ice creams was small enough that they could easily have been set off to the side with their own spoon or scooper. If people are going to continue to make meat ice creams, I would prefer them to be set apart like this. It's not a whole lot of effort, really.

[larksdream]

As a hypothetical vegetarian, I will say that I would also prefer the meat-y scoops be kept separate, since it can be done with fairly trivial rearranging of the meat ice creams to just one table. But you know, it just wasn't that big a deal to me. I certainly don't <i>expect</i> people to go out of their way to accommodate my personal preferences; I'm okay with the idea of group events not being all about me.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

yer a bit more than hypothetical :)

#

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

How in the world would bringing your own scoop solve anything? The issue is that the shared scoops contaminate the ice cream. Scooping the contaminated ice cream with a clean scoop wouldn't help anything.

This is aside from any view I might have on the issue, but you keep repeating the scoop thing and I know you know better.

(I personally would love to see the non-dairy flavors all together at their own table and would be happy to organize and then do plenty of work to make that happen, but I don't expect anything, in any case. But that has nothing to do with your silly scoop thing. :)