Promotional spew

 ### Msg 1

Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2017 18:55:36 -0500
Subject: to rally the resistance

This is really long and riddled with links to chase, but important.  It
tries to boil down a year-plus of the thinking and writing I've been doing
on this general topic, because it affects me pretty deeply and I'm hoping
some of you as well.  The TL;DR is that I'm looking for as much support as
possible for the "barefooting" thing around Arisia, and to remove any
remaining objections to it forever.

Whether you enjoy shucking your own shoes at-con or not, you've all either
expressed some degree of favor toward the lifestyle choice or have been
involved in discussions around it.  Negative and baseless incidents have
popped up sporadically over past years, many of which I have documented
in my debriefs, and there was *never* any valid reason for any of it to
happen.  The kind of gut-wrenching upset that can result from such attacks is
NOT OKAY under any circumstances -- it destroys the morale of well-meaning
volunteers, wastes everyone's time and energy, and no attempt to shift blame
can justify it.  Such onslaughts run against everything Arisia stands for.
The assailant in any such case is unquestionably in violation of the Code of
Conduct no matter who they are, and I hope I can speak for all of us when I
say I really want the discrimination and harassment to be permanently over.

Therefore, I'm looking to encourage plenty of happy free feet around the
con, to make it more clear that it's a widespread choice and perfectly okay.
"They'll think it's a movement", to quote Arlo Guthrie.  It is, and it's
all about numbers.  If you think of any additional *supportive* folks I
should be sending this to, please let me know.

The main thing to remember is that barefoot people are DOING NOTHING WRONG,
by simply deciding that they don't want to wear shoes -- just like they
would with hats or gloves, until perhaps heading outdoors.  They are in fact
letting the feet they were born with be healthier and happier, benefitting
from better comfort and mobility *especially* while working their butts off
for the convention.  We're all responsible adults who know what we're doing,
and several of us go out and enjoy the challenge of environments far harsher
than a typical hotel building without incident or issue.  There is simply no
point in having a footwear rule, as all it does is hamper our abilities,
protects no one, and breeds animosity in harmful ways.  Let's face it, when
the entire hotel is delightfully awash in geeky costumed freakazoids all
weekend, a few bare toes aren't going to make any difference and certainly
presents zero risk to us or our venue.

This is one of the important things to keep in mind: bare feet have *no*
impact on convention or hotel operations, and any claim to the contrary is
patently as well as legally false.  None of the typical four or five excuse
types proffered by the haters -- health code, safety risk, liability, food,
or "decorum" -- have ever had real-life truth, from the sixties on down to
the present.  It's all just ignorant prejudice due to the brainwashing we've
been exposed to, this pervasive mythology that bare feet are somehow bad.

Because of that, the confidence needed to simply not worry about what any
situation may bring is very hard to achieve, and a confrontation can easily
take the wind right out of one's sails.  This is why I'm asking everyone to
stand our collective ground as much as they're comfortable with.  Pushback
is key here.  Bullies are always in the wrong, and don't learn anything if
victims simply knuckle under and submit.  Arisia is all about diversity and
inclusion and lifestyle alternatives, and the con is supposed to help create
a safe space for celebrating that.  Really, I just want all concerned to
simply understand that going unshod is a fun, freeing, and healthy lifestyle
aspect that harms nothing and nobody, and is completely in keeping with the
convention's overall social milieu.

The in-progress management takeover by Marriott may actually present some
additional support, as the company's own core values seem to be largely
in line with Arisia's philosophy.  Give this link a quick read:
   http://www.marriott.com/diversity/corporate-diversity.mi

You'll see that this thinking is specifically extended to their guests as
well as their associates.  This is an important point to remember when
talking to any hotel representatives.  Their job is to make everyone feel
welcome, not to invent exceptions based on fifty-year-old fake news.  It
is also worth noting that the Westin is pet-friendly, with some caveats,
none of which involve booties.

I have developed a small supportive token for this effort.  I worked with
the same company that supplies our badge and masquerade ribbons and put in
my own design and order, and due to a minor manufacturing screwup wound
up with twice as many as originally intended:
   http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/bf/tworibb_s.jpg

Unfortunately the messed-up batch on the right is very hard to read in
most lighting, corrected by the left-hand batch.  So I have 300 of each.
While these presently have no particular special administrative status, the
idea is very similar to the "pronoun" ribbons -- simply asking for respect
for one's personal choices.  The original idea may have been to use them
to indicate that the wearer had signed some kind of official liability
waiver -- but NO such arrangement is in place and such documents aren't
needed in the first place, because neither Arisia or the hotel carries
*any* liability for a conventiongoer's feet.  This is the simple fact of
how the law around "duty of care" works.  Nobody's about about to "step
on something and sue the hotel", as the common refrain goes.

The problem with the ribbons is distribution.  Simply leaving them on a
freebie table or something simply invites some hater to come along and
remove them all.  Most of us are going to be way too busy working to spend
time sitting in a hallway to talk to curious people and hand ribbons out
to supportive attendees who promise to use them in their intended spirit.
I have a couple of other ideas on this which I'll talk about in a separate
message.

I have been chatting a bit with Rashawn, who's one of the head people in
the Watch aka convention security.  He approached me at the first concomm
meeting this year, saying that he'd like footwear to simply not be an issue
either way for his crew.  I originally took this to mean that he's sort of
rooting for us, but now I'm not so sure.  I sent him a longish rundown on
why the Five Excuses are falsehoods, and he never bothered to reply to that
email.  At the next concomm he confirmed that he did receive it and had
read it all, but I'm not even so sure of that.  Even then he was apparently
still laboring under the typical delusions about food and footwear, the
frequent claim that there's some kind of "health code", when in fact there's
never been any relation between the two and I *did* discuss that in my
email.  This tells me that he didn't really absorb what I'd sent him.  I
will forward that original long message separately.  In general it appears
that quite a few of the otherwise intelligent, educated Arisia people are
still misinformed, which is sad but not entirely unexpected.

Rashawn's take now appears to be more robotic, e.g. saying that if someone
"higher up" than him comes up with some "written policy" about footwear
around the con that he'll simply enforce it, and if there isn't one, the
Watch will then not feel compelled to go after the shoeless.  While remaining
neutral perhaps shifts responsibility away from the Watch, this feels like a
cop-out to me, and could go the wrong way if various foot-phobic influences
within either the hotel or Arisia staff have their bigoted say.  Since most
of those discussions happen far above my pay-grade too, I'm not sure I can
sway that either way other than passing on as many objective facts as I
already have.  Nobody bothers to keep us in the loop about any of this, of
course.  In the meantime I've read all the hotel contracts, and there's
nothing specific about attire in any of them other than it must be
"street legal".  Which bare feet certainly are.

So at this point I have no assurance from anyone on how things are ultimately
going to go.  We have a very positive 7-year working relationship with the
Westin, and the vast majority of its staff seems perfectly fine with all
of our little oddities and generally loves the con.  The problems have
originated from a very few but vocal individuals, who mostly have not even
had the spine to address any of us directly but instead sneak around behind
our backs.  I know that I have been the sole target [so to speak] at times
over those years, but if this problem is going to really get fixed forever I
cannot do this alone.  That's why I'm asking for your support and solidarity,
and it may very well test the limits of your comfort zones.

Absolute worst case, things could go very badly.  The last thing I want
Arisia to turn into, of course, is another Balticon:
   http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/bf/balty.html

but if Arisia cannot stand by its stated principles, I have to stand by mine
and yes, you already know what that means.  For me personally, sheepish
acquiescence is not on the table this year.  I expect that your own levels
of commitment and support will be different, and that's okay.  At least
you'll go into this with your eyes wide open, possibly seeing a very dark
side of the con and its people depending on how things play out.  We need
to be ready for whatever comes.  People might get kicked out of the con
and/or hotel.  There could even be police involvement, not that any laws
would have been broken other than perhaps discrimination and ADA violations
on the part of a public accomodation.  How any organization could get that
petty and arbitrary is hard to imagine, but unreasoning foot-hate fervor
can reach the level of a bad religion in some people and completely get
in the way of their professionalism.

But let's not beg trouble!  I'm sincerely hoping that the Arisia higher-ups
have come to understand the utter folly of letting such things happen, and
have brought any hotel-side objectors up to speed on why none of this needs
to be viewed as any sort of a problem and how they are still expected to not
harass any convention members over entirely legal modes of dress.  All the
doubters need to do is spend the five minutes on the internet it takes to
find all the facts.  We could still receive negativity from some individuals
who haven't been appropriately briefed, but that's an opportunity to combat
their hate-speech with education.  There's no harm in debunking whatever
old illogic they're clinging to and expressing the positives of healthy,
unhampered feet.  But it may still be a bit of uphill work and discernment
of when people are lying.  Excuses like "the hotel says you can't" are
specious, because the hotel is an inanimate building that doesn't care what
anyone's wearing -- it's specific *people* within either of the organizations,
and it's time to flush them out and set them straight.  If well-meaning direct
and factual correction fails and someone simply goes all control-freak on you,
then get names.  File Code of Conduct violation reports with the Watch.  Ask
for the hotel's General Manager and complain about the poor guest experience.
Write formal grievances to whichever corporate structure has charge of the
Westin that week, and request that offending associates and their superiors
be held accountable.  When situations generate official complaints, that's
when management tends to listen because it's categorically bad for business.

One might very well ask, why not just talk to the hotel management and/or
divheads in advance and get "clearance", but the problems with that approach
are 1> that it has a nonzero chance of backfiring, and 2> that simply being
freely barefoot around what amounts to our *home* for the weekend must be
viewed as not so out of the ordinary after all, and therefore no special
permission or even discussion is needed in the first place.  The ribbons
are almost at odds with that philosophy, making their own special point
about it, but I think they're subtle enough that their message is simply
"I do this by choice and by right and I'm fine with it".  They are still a
useful tool in a grassroots effort.  Some of you also already know I have
a convenient website to point people to, outbarefoot.org and its convenient
handout cards, that guide them to the best informational sites and recommends
some simple independent searches.

All of this still may be in flux, too, as presumably some discussion may
still happen at higher levels within Arisia and more, uh, input may roll
down the pipeline in the interim.  So the stance and concerns presented
here may be slightly premature, but I wanted to get people thinking on
it well in advance of the con run-up.  And, thank you for listening.
I'm Hobbit, and I approve this message.

_H*,  totally unofficial barefoot-advocacy area head

_____________________________________________________________

 ### Msg 2

Subject: Rashawn msg
Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2017 07:44:02 -0500 (EST)

Here's the essence of the msg I sent Rashawn after the first concomm meeting.
You can probably sense my enthusiasm after that first conversation, but after
a month of crickets and some confusing or somewhat noncommital responses at
the second meeting, I don't know where things stand and it's likely that he
doesn't either.  I hope I at least set him straight about the food fallacy.

Bare feet really do not cause the sky to fall...

 ====

Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2017 07:53:31 -0500
To: (Rashawn, Diversity department)
Subject: on behalf of the bf'ers...

Heya, thanks for coming up and giving your thoughts on the "feet thing".
I'm really glad that you're pulling for us -- I and the other barefooters
really want this "issue" to simply be a non-issue, for everyone.  Just part
of life, part of the diversity we celebrate.  Here are some more thoughts
and info-pointers that might be useful in some of the discussions you might
find yourself in.  It's kinda long, and sorry if I'm preaching to the choir
here -- I've written quite a lot about this recently, and hopefully this
can help clear up any questions someone might have.

A few bare feet might be out of the ordinary in the real world, but there
is nothing inherently wrong with it and a growing number of people are
realizing the benefits of shucking their shoes.  It shouldn't really be
considered anything out of the ordinary in the *Arisia* context, which
itself is a bit out of the "ordinary" in the first place [and proud of it,
wouldn't ya think?].  It's part of what we do / are, from our silly hats
down to our choice of footwear.  Yep, even in the cold.

There's a small set of the typical excuses for objecting to bare feet, all
of which are specious and contain little or no truth.  You might already be
aware of these, but just in case it's needed, the quick list, phrased
in a way you could easily pass on to your colleagues ...

*  Health/sanitation: No bearing.  There are no health laws/regulations in
  any state in the US or on our municipal level against bare feet, including
  in business establishments.  That's amply detailed at all of the barefoot
  advocacy sites, notably barefooters.org.  And bare feet are actually far
  healthier than keeping one's feet entombed in airless fungus-farms all day,
  which is why ours don't stink and are in much better shape than most.

*  Safety: little or no bearing.  I, for one, consider myself *safer* when
  working on things that I do without shoes than with.  That includes in harsh
  environments and around heavy items.  Having my feet free gives me far more
  situational awareness, agility/balance, and general working comfort on the
  job.  If it's really cold and I'm in deep snow or whatever I'll throw on
  the old sneakers as an insulation layer, but that's all they're for -- a
  tool for specific use, like oven mitts.  I spent a lot of time hiking this
  summer, up mountains and over sharp rocks and gravel, and if anything I've
  "grown my own shoes" more this year than some previously.  Little bits of
  glass and metal totally don't bother me, and I can also say that's true
  for some other Arisia members who have been hiking with me.  Small pokes
  are no big deal if they do happen, and we're more likely to stop and
  *clean up* any hazards we notice than just stomp over them.

*  Liability/insurance: not applicable.  Because of the way premises-liability
  and duty-of-care law works, the hotel has *no* responsibility for anyone's
  feet.  The most they might optionally want to do is remind people to watch
  their step, and that's it.  This is one of the most common "fears" of
  venue management, and it's totally groundless.  And there is not one
  business insurance policy on the planet that mentions footwear concerns
  for its patrons.  If any notion of "waivers" comes up, they're completely
  unnecessary because legally, both the hotel and Arisia are already in
  the clear and it's 100% on the individual to take care of themselves.
  No sane lawyer would take a case that tried to claim otherwise.

*  Food: absolutely no bearing, and there never has been.  This is one of
  those fake-news myths from the sixties, but it's a deeply entrenched one.
  We are working to dispel this, and a growing list of high-profile
  corporations have no "shoe rule" anymore because they've realized how
  nonsensical having one is.

*  Decorum/social: none of anyone else's business, just like with any other
  outwardly visible lifestyle choice.  I don't go around belittling people
  for body mass or weird hair colors, because we're supposedly in a polite
  society where we accept each others' quirks without question.  "Decorum"
  is about how we behave, not how we dress.  The Arisia leadership is
  encouraged to support this position to anyone who raises a question.

As far as I'm concerned, any Arisia member regardless of status who hassles
another member over any personal attribute is in immediate violation of
the Code of Conduct.  Bare feet are certainly street-legal attire, to use
its own phrasing.

By and large the Westin personnel have been awesome to us over the years,
with very minor exceptions.  They are subject to similar constraints,
too -- if they start going after Arisia members out of personal prejudice,
they may very well be in violation of Marriott's own policy about such
things too.  Have a look at
   http://www.marriott.com/diversity/corporate-diversity.mi
which is mostly about their staff/associates and hiring practices, but they
specifically extend those core values to guests and groups they host as
well.  A few happy piggies running around has absolutely no impact on hotel
operations, but puts a serious crimp in *ours* if they start wasting our
time with petty gripes about it.  There may also be ADA implications, as
there really are some people with a *medical need* to avoid wearing shoes
and must legally be accomodated.  And with Arisia weirdness already filling
the place, there's no particular effect on some conceptual "image" either.
There's nothing particularly special about the hotel lobby area, which
seemed to fall under some kind of weird distinction last year.

Because of the rumors flying around last year and a couple of harassment
incidents I was made aware of, I wound up writing a lot about this into my
debrief from last year.  Some of that also prompted me to make supportive
badge ribbons this year.  300 of these are on order from Hodges, where
Sharon gets all the others.  This is the proof image they sent:
   http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/bf/hodges2.jpg
with the lettering in silver like most of our others.  My original fantasy
for these was some kind of pre-arrangement where they would prevent a wearer
from getting accosted about their feet, e.g. a silent statement that they
know what they're doing and should be left alone -- in a similar way to our
staff ribbons, e.g. someone wearing one in theory doesn't get looked at
funny for being in back hallways or service elevators.  That's probably too
much to hope for but it can still be a useful token of some sort.  Like most
of our others, these ribbons are mostly for fun anyway since barefooters
shouldn't be treated any differently from anyone else -- but if someone
*wanted* to confer some special status onto them, we'll have them.  Think
about the intent of the "pronoun" ribbons, for example -- just asking for
due respect of one's personal choices.

I don't know what meetings you wind up participating in, but it seems like
some of the *Arisia* people may still be ignorant of the barefootin' facts.
Witness Rick Katze's question from the meeting, if you caught that -- the
old mythology is very pervasive, and still objectively wrong.  One caution
to keep in mind is that trying to hash it out with hotel reps in advance may
backfire and make them try to clamp down all the harder -- which given the
Marriott value statements noted above would definitely not be in *their*
best interests either, but there are some really foot-phobic individuals
out there who are apt to set aside all reason.  It's like a bad religion
or superstition of some sort, such a paralyzing fear of feet, but a little
helpful education could go a long way.  I therefore leave any advance pursuit
to your judgement, but the absolutely last thing I would want is for Arisia
to turn into another Balticon.

I also discovered that the Westin is pet-friendly with certain limitations,
and pets or service animals brought in certainly don't wear any shoes.

Anyway, this is probably more than you expected but is a fairly complete
statement of my [and hopefully your] position on this.  ...  Again,
thanks, and please keep me in the loop as to how things proceed.

_H*

_____________________________________________________________

 ### Msg 3

Date: Tue, 26 Dec 2017 08:37:26 -0500
Subject: rallying the advocates, part 3

It's been a little while since my last spew, and nothing in the way of a
"position" one way or the other has come down from official-land.  In the
meantime, I had a very pleasant set of encounters on the way down to my
usual December haunts -- met some of the elder mainstays of the Society for
Barefoot Living, and had some other fun adventures.  The main recurring
theme through my conversations was the same -- gloveless, hatless, shoeless,
etc -- all exactly equivalent and nothing at all wrong with any of it.

But back to Arisia.  As the con approaches and various frenzies ramp up,
now we need to consider the distribution problem.  With a big stack of
specialized ribbons comes the question of how to get them into appropriate
peoples' hands and onto their badges, along with explaining what they're
supposed to mean if needed.  The latter is pretty obvious but interpretation
is mostly beyond my control.  For the former, I've been thinking about
distribution a little and recalling how it's done for other types such as
the tech-staff ribbons.  In general it seems to be person-to-person handoff
to recognized recipients, and in this case the potentially controversial
subject matter precludes the model of leaving them at a table with passive
instructions like how the "pronoun" ribbons were done.

Most of us are going to be working, often in areas where the general
attendance doesn't go.  So a mechanism is needed to get real live people
into the public areas for the right type of visibility.  There may be
opportunities for someone to physically sit at a table near Registration
or wherever, maybe draw up a quick attraction sign, and chat with people
and offer ribbons to the more serious folks who seem willing to wear them
[and no shoes, we hope!] in the *intended spirit*.  They all need to know
the same caveats about being confronted and standing their ground, so some
one-on-one explanation may be necessary.  Who would such a distribution
agent(s) be?  I don't have a good answer -- perhaps some of us in rare
off-duty moments, perhaps trustworthy people we could recruit.  Cosplay
Repair is across from the ballrooms, and I am grateful to have a offer of
that also serving as a publicity and distribution point.  And what anyone
is told depends heavily on whatever we find the acceptance climate to be by
the time we're at the con -- that is still a big unknown at this point.

What I think will be most effective in any case is good fan-out, to help
spread the meme.  In the few odd intervals when we and/or our advocates get
to be around the common areas of the hotel, we may spot a couple of barefoot
attendees or meet someone who seems interested in the concept regardless of
what's on their feet at the time.  We can ask if it's something they like
doing and offer enthusiastic support and a ribbon of their own.  And if
they know other people who would be similarly inclined, some ribbons to
pass on to them too!  Then if they can be drafted to help be the next
distribution level in an "Amway" style pyramid, they may be able to help
further.  That way we may be able to slowly delegate the distribution
effort to others, perhaps people we don't even know yet.  That's how
exponential growth works -- if the flu virus can do it, so can we.

But in this case we need to retain control of the payload, so things don't
get out of control or vandalized.  If a newly recruited agent has good
success and legitimately runs out of ribbons, they need to come find a
trusted colleague for more.  That also lets us know how much progress is
being made.  And as much as I don't want to mention it, let's be aware that
an outwardly well-meaning person could playact as a willing meme-spreader
and keep coming back for more supplies, but be simply dumping them
somewhere useless.

A ribbon should be accompanied with a supporting document, a sheet with
various information and additional evidence-in-favor.  On one side will
be a shortened version of some text I put together recently, based on
what I sent Rashawn a while back:
   http://outbarefoot.org/excuses.html
and on the other side, the latest official Massachusetts health-department
letter from barefooters.org.  These texts can help bust the ignorance, both
on the part of the possessor and any potential harasser.  Our primary goal
is constructive education, not raw rebellion, but to also remain firm in
our convictions when others happen to view things differently.

Frankly I'm not anticipating or borrowing too much trouble, but I could
still see some random individuals getting all bent out of shape by realizing
that there's any element of an organized movement.  We need to be on guard
for that and defend our stance politely but vigorously, relying on the
objective facts and how *any* prejudice runs counter to core values of
both Arisia and Marriott.

Obviously, the worst-case possible sad outcome is a bunch of people running
around the con with the ribbons after being bullied by the intolerant to keep
shoes *on*.  I won't be around to see most of that, of course, as if that
scenario were to play out I would already be on my way home.  Of course shod
or unshod is always an individual's choice at any given time, and maybe a
badge-labeled barefooter will have shoes on because they just came in from
the snowstorm which they weren't quite up to barefooting in!  Weather may
even compel me into using some insulative tools for a while too, but only
for the time they're really needed.

On a slightly different topic, here's a helpful pre-con point.  If your soles
are prone to cracking along the thicker skin, cyanoacrylate aka Krazy Glue
is the optimal fix.  Cold weather tends to dry the skin out and exacerbates
cracks working their way in deeper, so it's good to examine your feet and
patch yourself up before the con -- that fix will likely last all weekend.
Just run the glue right down in there and remain still until it cures solid.
Any of the more liquid types of glue should work; I'm partial to the Loctite
"liquid control" variant in the roughly triangular bottle that's dark grey
with red squeezy-sides.  Gel types may not penetrate right.

For those staying at the Aloft across the way, especially with the nice
frigid forced-march along D street from the surprise renovation kerfluffle,
Aloft is also a Starwood / Marriott property and under the same company
core values.  Since that hotel isn't really going to be con hang-out space
anyway, I don't anticipate any particular trouble over there.  Perhaps
their restaurant personnel will need a little education.

Let's work to make this a permanent non-issue, in keeping with our common
goal of making Arisia a truly safe space for everyone.

_H*