Save the Date: Society of Ancients Conference 2020: 31 October/1st November

[Richard Lockwood]

When: Weekend of 31st October/1st November 2020
Where: Great New Venue! Madingley Hall, Madingley, Cambridge CB23 8AQ

[holdfast]

It is six months until the Society Conference. With lockdown in force they is absolutely no excuse for turning up at Madingley without a game on offer.
Lots of time to ponder which period/battle has always appealed to you and produce the army/armies in plenty of time.
Those figure manufacturers who have stayed open for business can look in driving their top of the range Mercedes.
I will be recreating a Charles Grant battle from his The Ancient War Game, which has just been reprinted by Caliver.
JohnDZ

[Dave Knight]

Any update on whether or not this is likely to proceed?

[Duncan Head]

Received an email from the organisers a few days ago - as no doubt did everyone else who's expressed an interest - saying that plans were well advanced for a distanced, safe conference. I hadn't quite made up my mind whether to attend or not ...

... and today the UK government announces a ban on gatherings of more than six people in England, starting next Monday. "A full list of exemptions is due to be published before the law changes", but I am not optimstic.

Looking forward to the 2021 Conference now.

[Tim]

Duncan, you are assuming that the police state in which we now live will have relaxed the rules by the end of 2021...

[Nick Harbud]

... and today the UK government announces a ban on gatherings of more than six people in England, starting next Monday. "A full list of exemptions is due to be published before the law changes", but I am not optimstic.

Most recent measures seem to be focused on domestic gatherings where the irresponsible and fecund youth are failing to maintain an adequate social distance.  According to UK Government website, "Venues following COVID-19 secure guidelines will be able to continue to host more people in total."

[aligern]

I am unclear how we will cope with  this section of the rules:

'Venues following COVID-19 secure guidelines will be able to continue to host more people in total - such as religious services in places of worship - but no one should visit in a group of greater than 6. When you visit one of these places, such as a pub, shop, leisure venue, restaurant or place of worship you should:

follow the limits on the number of other people you should meet with as a group - no more than six people unless you all live together (or are in the same support bubble)
avoid social interaction with anyone outside the group you are with, even if you see other people you know
provide your contact details to the organiser so that you can be contacted if needed by the NHS Test and Trace programme.'

The regulations struggle to accommodate the 'rule of six' with the government's desire to have life  regain normalcy.
The arbiters of the legality of all  this will be the local police. An organiser would  have to know that they approved of the activity and that it complied with the rule cited above, the tenor of which is that  one would have to stick with the same group of up to six  ( still social distancing within the group) all weekend.
Roy

Roy

[Imperial Dave]

its all a bit of a mess really...

[Nick Harbud]

I am unclear how we will cope with  this section of the rules:

I expect the venue will have asked the necessary questions already.

[Imperial Dave]

I am unclear how we will cope with  this section of the rules:

I expect the venue will have asked the necessary questions already.

interestingly an excerpt from the BBC on it:

Will any social events of more than six be allowed?
Some gatherings of more than six people will be allowed, for example:

If your household or support bubble is larger than six
Where gatherings are for work or education purposes
Weddings and funerals
Team sports organised in a way limiting the spread of coronavirus
If you live in a household of more than six you can gather in public or private. However, you will not be able to join with anyone from outside of your household.

A full list will be published before the law changes on Monday.

could the conference be classed as an educational purpose?

[aligern]

Very difficult that one Dave. The intention with educational exemption is going to be to get schools, colleges  and universities back functioning. I suspect that if there is any policy towards such events it will be directed against someone holding a party with 30 people, giving them all a free copy  of Teach yourself Spanish as they come in the door and playing a couple  of Buena Vista Social club tracks in the disco!
As to Nick's point, he is the most robustly cheerful optimist chap that I have known...I rather think we will have to check rather than rely on the venue...of course its nice if they check too.
Roy

[Jim Webster]

Very difficult that one Dave. The intention with educational exemption is going to be to get schools, colleges  and universities back functioning. I suspect that if there is any policy towards such events it will be directed against someone holding a party with 30 people, giving them all a free copy  of Teach yourself Spanish as they come in the door and playing a couple  of Buena Vista Social club tracks in the disco!
As to Nick's point, he is the most robustly cheerful optimist chap that I have known...I rather think we will have to check rather than rely on the venue...of course its nice if they check too.
Roy

I confess my first thought was, who in the club can we persuade to get married 

Could always end up a funeral if his intended finds out the reason, but we'd still get the games in 

[Nick Harbud]

I have seen no difference with respect to restaurants, etc.  Maximum who can congregate at a single table is 6, and they should all be from the same social bubble.  This is due to obvious reason that one needs to remove face coverings to consume food & drink.  If you have more than 6 people or they are from more than one social bubble, you need additional tables that are 2 metres or more apart.

One of my daughters shares a house with 6 other students.  I have asked whether they have decided who should stay outdoors, but her response (which cannot be repeated here) led me to believe that I had misunderstood the situation.  Incidentally, they are all studying different courses, which means they all go into university and mix with other social groups who then go back to their own houses, shared with 6 other students, etc, etc.... 

I am not sure that I am an optimist, but I was in southeast China during 2002/2003 (SARS) and Saudi Arabia during 2013 (MERS).  One learns to put coronavirus epidemics in perspective.  Put it this way, I have personally known more people who have been shot down or blown up in passenger aircraft than have died of such plagues.  And as for the IRA, they tried to blow me up when I was working across the road from Reading Railway Station, and were only foiled by one of Reading's many thieves who stole their bomb.  There comes a point when you have to stop worrying and just order another beer.

[Jim Webster]

I am not sure that I am an optimist, but I was in southeast China during 2002/2003 (SARS) and Saudi Arabia during 2013 (MERS).  One learns to put coronavirus epidemics in perspective.  Put it this way, I have personally known more people who have been shot down or blown up in passenger aircraft than have died of such plagues.  And as for the IRA, they tried to blow me up when I was working across the road from Reading Railway Station, and were only foiled by one of Reading's many thieves who stole their bomb.  There comes a point when you have to stop worrying and just order another beer.

Yes, a lad I was at school with died in an IRA bomb attack (as a journalist he ran towards the bang, not away, and was caught by the second)
My lady wife and I have had the virus with no particular ill effects. The problem is my experience of 'field epidemiology' is agricultural and Steve and I have the 2001 FMD outbreak under our belts.
We exterminated a virus by the simple expedient of killing and destroying the bodies of up to ten million mainly cattle and sheep, the majority of which wouldn't have the virus but were killed as potentially dangerous contacts.

To put it in perspective, if a wagon load of cattle was to arrive tomorrow on a ferry from the Irish Republic and one was spotted as having FMD, all cattle, sheep and pigs on that ferry would be killed. And if they'd moved onto farms, they'd probably kill all the animals on the farms they were moved to. They would then monitor like hawks all contiguous famrs.
That is, alas, how you stamp out a virus.
All we're doing is slowing the spread. The idea initially was to make sure the NHS didn't buckle under the pressure. That has worked.
But seriously, until we've got enough people with some resistance, the virus will continue to spread.

Looked at from a historical perspective, in our period, endemic diseases were far more serious. I've read in various places that cities were so unhealthy they couldn't maintain their population by normal reproduction, they depended on a steady inflow of healthy peasantry from the hinterland to keep their numbers up.

Jim

[Duncan Head]

And as for the IRA, they tried to blow me up when I was working across the road from Reading Railway Station, and were only foiled by one of Reading's many thieves who stole their bomb. 

Makes me proud to live in Reading.