As we experience the relief of the lockdown in some countries, we want to move forward into funding and hosting in-person events. Our first priority is the health and safety of your group. Here you will find the best practices and tools to host a safe event. These are not required in order to receive a grant/scholarship, but this document provides a comprehensive list of recommended guidelines to ensure the safety of your participants. This checklist does not need to be submitted alongside your grant proposal.
Safety Steps
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Monitor trusted sources on which precautions to follow according to applicable local requirements.
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You can use the best practices of the World Health Organization (WHO) or your relevant national or regional health services on how to protect yourself and others. Review those sources daily and make sure that your event is still complying with restrictions on the day of the event.
If you have different restrictions for different provinces/ regions/ districts in your country, you should follow the guidelines that apply based on the location of the event.
A few additional resources on COVID-19 Travel Recommendations by Country:
Identify and engage with local and national public health authorities. Agree in advance on the course of action and communication for any scenario.
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Have at least one individual who will be responsible for coordinating a medical response and for coordinating and testing pre event mitigations.
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Provide participants with an address and contact info for the nearest clinic or health services station.
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Prepare a communication plan.
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Share information, the precautions you will put in place, the local authorities guidelines and how you are going to enforce them, and recommendations as for how to protect yourself and others before and during the event. Make sure this information is up to date and public on the event page and in the venue.
Ask and remind regularly - minimize contact and handshakes, wash your hands often for 20 seconds, use hand sanitiser, a face mask and keep distance as possible.
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Provide face masks to all participants and sanitising stations. If you are applying for a grant, you can ask for face masks and hand sanitiser as a budget item on your proposal.
Provide resources that detail the signs and symptoms of COVID-19 to help educate participants on whether they should attend the event/activity.
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The WHO is providing posters and banners to download and use (1,2)
Require organizers and participants to stay home if they have any COVID-19 symptoms, including fever, cough or gastro-intestinal issues. Additionally, require participants to not attend the event if they have been diagnosed with COVID-19, or had direct contact with an individual diagnosed with or suspected to have COVID-19 in the past 14 days.
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Ask participants to fill in a pre-screening survey (have you come in contact with someone with covid in the last 2 weeks, etc).
Adjust your program as needed and identify opportunities to reduce the risk for transmission and exposure.
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Such as using someone else’s computer; preparing food together, or social activities that include physical contact.
Make sure you have all the necessary information and direct contact details of all participants, during and after the event in case there is a suspected or confirmed case of COVID-19 among participants.
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Make it clear in advance that complying with safety policies and procedures is a prerequisite for attending the event. Any participant that will violate the safety policies will be asked to leave the event. Assign event staff / volunteers to enforce these rules.
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Provide only pre-packaged food and beverage and ask to avoid any exchanging of items (such as swag).
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In case your event includes overnight stay, please ensure everyone is staying in separate rooms (shared rooms will not be permitted, both to staff or scholarship recipients).
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Use the risk assessment tool 48 hours before your event/activity, to make sure your controls and level of risk still applies.
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Please note that our travel insurance company is International SOS. International SOS covers all volunteers for medical coverage outside their home country.
Volunteers who are traveling domestically for Wikimedia Foundation work or events are not covered under any type of inductance.
Domestically, means traveling within the country for which they hold a passport.
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Volunteers and staff are expected to use their own health care insurance when they are at Wikimedia events in their home countries.
(For US residents - if they have more than one passport then their home country is defined as the country that they have declared to the US in writing to be their home country).
Other tips and precautions for your event:
Make sure you place an insurance policy when possible (you can add insurance costs to your grant proposal) and discuss the terms of your policy in advance.
Allowing after the fact reimbursement for attendees (e.g for ground transportation) is not recommended because in a case of cancelation you will find it very hard to coordinate. It’s always better to negotiate directly with a vendor in any case of refunds or cancellation fees.
Make sure you have enough volunteers or staff members on your team, to deal with refunds, enquiries and crisis communications. You might need more capacity than you initially planned for.
Communicate with your participants on a regular basis. Let them know about changes, publish a FAQ on your event page, and inform them on your procedure and health precautions you’ll be taking at the event.
Remember that you can always consider having a virtual event grant instead of an in-person one.
