Beer at BarCamp?
Pete Prodoehl
For BarCampMilwaukee2 we may have a brewery for a sponsor (Hey, it's
Milwaukee!) But... we definitely had underage people last year, and I'm
concerned about having free beer at a free event with under-21 people there.
I know other BarCamps have had alcohol at them, but is it something we
don't want to deal with, or do we need to take special measures and hope
for the best?
The brewery also makes soda, so there'd be something for everyone,
but.... any advice or comments on this?
Thanks BarCampers...
Pete
Nicole Simon
Assuming you will have a hard time if you do not manage to
get this under control, may I suggest using colored wrist
bands for age, but make this a fun issue?
I assume liabilities only go so far as handing out beer, what
happens if I hand out a beer to my friend i got from the officials
should be a different story.
hth
Nicole
[reminds me of an all great trip of a friend to florida as
a freshly out of the closet homosexual, this was supposed
to be the trip of his lifetime - he did not know about the 21
thing and got back totally frustrated - with 20 you are already
2 years over "adult" border. You are allowed to drink beer
in Germany when you are 16 I guess]
Greg Pederson
Where and when for this bar camp?
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes
Greg.P...@gmail.com
Michael Collins
Tantek Çelik
> and lets not forget this.
> http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2167193,00.asp
Is that like meta-meta-patent trolling? (emailing about talking about
possible patent trolling?)
let's not forget that microsoft has yet to bring an original (as opposed to
in response/defense to) patent suit to court against any open source vendor
ever (or perhaps any vendor?).
until then, i call theoretical.
go get some real world examples next time before re-raising this OT troll.
kthxbai.
tantek
Pete Prodoehl
> Get the underagers to bring their parents :)...minors can drink while with
> parents in the state of Wisconsin.
>
> Where and when for this bar camp?
Oct 13/14, 2007
Bucketworks
1340 North Sixth Street
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/235252/
(We are getting barcampmilwaukee.com ready for re-launch, right now it
is mostly last years info.)
Mailing list is at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/barcampmilwaukee/
Pete
Chris Messina
the "bar" in "barcamp" somehow, right? j/k). The biggest problem that
I can recall was that a keg got stolen in Toronto. It was empty,
fortunately.
Anyway, as with all things on mailing lists, IANAL and am therefore
only offering an opinion from experience, but as long as you treat
people as adults, they tend to respond in kind. This is not universal,
but it's a good place to start from.
As for underage kids, I think the best thing you can do is just keep
an eye out as you would at a private party. I think as long as you're
not knowingly plying kids with alcohol, you have some plausible
deniability. And so long as its not flowing in extreme overabundance,
I don't think you'd be inviting such a risk either.
Maybe this isn't all that useful, but I think as long as the
organizers exercise some sense in articulating the point of the event
(socialization, gathering, conversation) and not getting wasted,
you've done your part.
Chris
--
Chris Messina
Citizen Provocateur &
Open Source Advocate-at-Large
Work: http://citizenagency.com
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Scott M. Stolz / WisTex
liability and makes it easier to track who is of age and who is not.
To get a wrist band, they must show ID, and put on the wrist band at
that time (that way they cannot show ID and give their wrist band to
someone underage). If a minor gets their hands on alcohol, at least
by using the wrist bands, you can show that it didn't come from those
serving it.
As someone mentioned, in Wisconsin, a minor can drink alcohol as long
as it is given to them by their parent. Key word: given. A Wisconsin
bartender explained to me that the bartender must serve the parent,
and the parent must hand the beverage to their child. It is illegal
for anyone other than the parent to hand them the beverage, even if
the parent consents. At least that is the rule for bars. I would
suggest following that procedure even if the rules for bars does not
apply in our case just to be safe.
And, if you are having a brewery sponsor the event and providing
alcohol, see if they will provide someone to serve it as well. They
know all the laws, and if they are providing some local brews, it
could provide interesting conversation about the lagers and ales being
served, as well as be an awesome marketing opportunity for the brewery
to market some of its lesser known or more exotic beverages.
Hope that helps,
Scott
Tantek Çelik
In addition, just keep a general watch on people over-consuming.
I know we're not all supposed to be care-takers for each other etc., BUT,
BarCamp *is* about community and the more that we can look out for each
other (*especially* people you don't know), the better.
This is based on experience. One individual at BarCampSanFrancisco (AFAIK
not underage) got pretty trashed (on just beer) to the point of making lots
of other people uncomfortable, and getting borderline violent (throwing his
laptop around because something wasn't working). He was clearly upset, and
as far as I could tell, didn't know anyone else at BarCamp.
As a planner (as I'm assuming most of you are, have been, or will be some
day), I walked up to him, and just, as Chris put it, treated him as an adult
(i.e. didn't talk down to him) and talked with him calmly. IIRC Chris
talked with him as well. Perhaps just that act, of having someone else
treat him with "common decency" and talk with him (as opposed to being
ignored), calmed him down considerably.
Once he had calmed down, I made the usual chit-chat, where was he from, how
did he hear about BarCamp, what made him want to come to BarCamp, what did
he want to get done at BarCamp etc. - only once we had covered perhaps usual
"new person" territory, then did I ask him if he was ok (which he clearly
wasn't), and I think he started to become self-aware of his own behavior and
receptive to being helped. Even then he was still mixed, sometimes being
receptive, sometimes being "angry drunk" and insisting he was fine.
Persistent calm conversation (regardless of his tone of voice) seem to work.
Bottom line(s):
* If someone looks new/alone, introduce yourself and connect them with
others in the community.
* If someone has drank too much, sit them down and talk *calmly* with them
until they can "deal". It may take a while (an hour plus, as it did in the
case above).
* If that doesn't work, be prepared to escort them out.
Tantek