I'm writing as a semi-regular visitor to Boston ringing (tower and handbell) over the past 15-20 years.

I'm mindful that Covid is a sensitive topic, that email is an insensitive medium, and that it's for Boston ringers (and not visitors like me) to decide on the policies for your towers.

That said, and while what anyone wears is of course entirely up to them, I also find it very surprising to have a policy requiring all ringers to wear masks. 

Ringing is a social activity, and so requiring (or social pressure for) mask-wearing and also related ancillary measures (like requiring windows open, or monitoring CO2 levels, or tracking the composition of Boston wastewater to determine policies, or whatever) are a huge turn-off for me, and frankly something I find really rather odd. Such policies would be met with universal incredulity at all the towers I regularly ring at (including with various immuno-compromised ringers).

I've been back to Boston twice in the last 6 months, and neither time did I come ringing, because of the mask requirement. I'm not interested in ringing with such requirements. It's not fruitful to debate the intrinsic merits of such a stance, but people should be aware that such a stance as I have is widespread outside of Boston.

As I said, it's not for me to try to impose my view, but I think everyone should be aware that policies requiring or encouraging masks are not without consequences - such policies are unusual and will increasingly isolate the towers from visitors and the wider ringer community. And in my experience, that's unlikely to be a net positive outcome.

Best wishes,

Philip






On 21 May 2023 16:03, Ed Futcher via Boston-change-ringers <boston-change-ringers@cosmos.phy.tufts.edu> wrote:

I'm a little surprised that you are still requiring masks. Down here all medical institutions (Duke, UNC, Wakened) no longer require masks and in all the traveling I have done in the last 6 months there's rarely a mask to be seen let alone required.

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

  On Sat, May 20, 2023 at 11:41 AM, Allison Schinagle via Boston-change-ringers<boston-change-ringers@cosmos.phy.tufts.edu> wrote:    Hi all,

Given how a lot of organizations have been relaxing their masking
requirements recently, I was wondering if we have a particular condition in
mind when we would do the same? It would be good to know for sure what
would make people more comfortable switching to mask-optional.

Best,
Allison Schinagle
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