Re: [Mtgvenue] comments on draft-ietf-mtgvenue-iaoc-venue-selection-process-04

[Mary Barnes <[e-mail]>]

I'm for obvious reasons, focusing on this one particular point:

On Sun, Jan 29, 2017 at 10:10 PM, Stephen Farrell <[e-mail]
> wrote:
- 3.5, "health/religion related diets": I think this ought
only be important and not mandatory. I fully understand why
those affected would disagree but IMO promoting this to
mandatory would be paying too much attention to reasonable
people who are noisier than other reasonable people.

So, I am clearly one of the noisier people on this and have been for almost
9 years now since we ended up at a venue where lunch arrangements precluded
a not insignificant number of us (albeit a minority) not being able to eat
lunch - the hotel didn't accommodate us and there were no nearby grocery
stores.   Perhaps, we ought to change the word "health" to "medical". In
the US, food allergies and diseases like celiac are considered invisible
disabilities and are covered by the American Disabilities Act (you know the
one that requires wheelchair access).   And, yes, the laws are not the same
worldwide, but this is by way of an example that this isn't a trivial issue
and while some of us are noisier, there are a lot of less noisy reasonable
people that also find this to be a very important issue.

The dietary restrictions are not a choice for some of us.  As I've said
umpteen times before, the alternative if the venue doesn't ensure we can
get safe food is that we have to hope that we have been lucky enough to get
the contraband we pack in our luggage through customs.

I realize it's hard to grok this issue if you are not directly impacted,
but I would love for folks that don't think that people being able to find
sufficient safe food during the week is mandatory to spend a week eating
only the foods that they pack in their luggage.   I usually bring 2 lbs of
pumpkin seeds and 8 oz of raisins strategically distributed amongst my
suitcase, backpack and jacket in the hopes that I'm at least left with
something if my luggage is searched.    And, I bring another pound  of nut
based granola and some dried blueberries along with almond or coconut milk
powder.  And, I have some spirulina, carrot and beet powders.   If you
calculate the calories, I likely could survive on what I bring with me but
that depends entirely on it not being confiscated.

And, yeah, you might think it an impossibility that we couldn't find safe
food, but for some of us with medical conditions, cross contamination is a
big problem.  For some of us the reaction is like a bad stomach flu with a
very strict limitation as to how far you can be from a bathroom for days at
a time.   How would you feel knowing that you had a choice of eating from
your luggage or spending a week at an IETF meeting with a stomach bug never
getting too far from the bathroom or even your hotel room?

Regards,
Mary.

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