twtmc wrote:emi wrote:I don't believe the dance should be restricted to 18+ because a dance should be enjoyed by everyone as we are a family event.
God I hope it's not a "family event". Anime cons are supposed to be family friendly (as in, you can bring your kids and probably not be offended by what you see in all areas not rated above G), but they should certainly not be family oriented.
Oops, you're right! Wrong wording. Family-friendly, yes.
twtmc wrote:emi wrote:The RAST is there to enforce convention policies and there are convention security who can press legal charges as well. They will definitely want to be present at a dance like this. It will be harder for people to bring in alcohol and other illegal substances.
Alcohol? Yes. Party drugs? Not a chance. I have been to raves where they searched us so thoroughly it was illegal (inside wallets, under tongues) and I STILL got offered drugs the moment after stepping in. Realistically a cop might scare a few people but it certainly didn't deter anything last time I was at Sakura-Con.
We do not wish for it to become a dance like that. But in the end, we cannot control what our attendee wishes to do. I did say it will be more difficult, but I do not believe that we can provide a completely impermeable barrier for someone who truly wishes to bring in illegal substances. It will definitely not be without consequences, though. We will try our hardest to filter out alcohol and drugs to the best of our abilities.
twtmc wrote:emi wrote:-- we can create guidelines for entering the dance (ie: you cannot carry a bag/(personal or not)water bottle... etc) to make it more difficult. And also have RAST check the bathrooms from time to time.
No personal water bottle runs a HUGE risk of having at least one person pass out from heat exhaustion. People dancing = overheated. People in costume = possibly overheated. I don't see why an event would exchange x number of easily preventable injuries from happening in order to prevent ~x number of people from doing drugs.
We are looking into what Yukkuri said, water dispensers. This is to avoid people from leaving water bottles unattended then coming back to them-- in a sense like leaving your drink at a bar. It will not prevent people from doing drugs, but hopefully it will prevent people from spiking drinks. However, this would be flawed if the water dispensers are not monitored either. Since we have not decided if we allow them or not, we can suggest that you keep water bottles close to you at all times-- much like how you put your water bottle in your pocket.
twtmc wrote:emi wrote: Of course, anyone who seems inebriated or under the influence of illegal substances, we can escort them out and alert the green coats. Also, I believe that the Supervisor and the Senior RAST members should be the ones INSIDE the dance while other RAST members will check bathrooms and do personal badge checks. We can also request ID at the door... anything that seems too revealing is against our convention policies on being a family event, so we can refuse entrance... there are a lot of things that can be factored and bent to make this an all-round safer event. Announcing a time to do a minor-sweep at 11pm can allow people who are 18+ to dance for 3 hours just by themselves. If the dance starts at 9pm, then majority of the children under 15 would likely not be able to attend... just things like that we can think about. Also heavily announce + enforce the potential consequences for breaking these rules. Or we can even turn on the lights from time to time (although I'm sure people would dislike this idea...).
So basically try to remind everyone that they are being watched and then proceed to watch them? I see no problem with just sitting back and letting the mob police itself on the inside and just have simple, easy checkpoints for getting in (maybe show their pass? show ID after curfew?). No more (hopefully even less) than any other rave in an official venue would have. Hunt for witches and everyone is gonna start getting pissed that they have to prove they aren't witches.
This is true. They are inside not to check if people are doing crazy things, but to make sure that people are not hurting themselves since they are all OFAs. Say if someone does collapse due to overheating, we will be able to respond more accordingly. But I do think the idea of having designated check points for those who require assistance would be a good idea. As I have never attended a dance before, I am wondering if people would be able to notice if someone is in need of help? And the minor sweep will occur regardless, so that is another time that we will have RAST inside checking badges.
twtmc wrote:emi wrote:Any other ideas on how we can create a safe environment for all ages to dance in? Making the minor-sweep a public announcement to encourage those who are a little more wilder to come to the dance after 11pm? Or event have an 18+ dance event on another night?
I honestly think that it being 18+ will make the environment a little more dangerous only because persons over 19 can drink before they attend the dance and they will think that doing anything will be fine because they are legally their own person.
As someone who used to drink at cons quite heavily (and only stopped when I got caught a year and a half later) I can tell you; people who wanna drink at cons are gonna drink at cons. The way to avoid having the drunk people go to the rave? Have lots of late night programming for them to go to when they decide that they can't take the smell of weeb funk anymore. Not hard to have 1 security guard catch the one guy yelling dumb stuff and heckling in some 18+ panel because he is drunk.
That definitely does sound plausible... What types of panels do you suggest?
And I'm sorry for being unclear.
In the end, these are not rules set in stone but merely just suggestions! I really appreciate your debates and suggestions. Thank you!
