Our COVID-19 Policy

Published on Mar 11, 2024 by CHN Board

Updated March 11, 2024

Current Policy

In our previous policies, the Board of Chi Hack Night stated that we would adjust our policies based on what we deemed necessary to have safe events. Based on recent local trends of COVID-19 cases, the Board has decided that we will no longer require masks for our attendees - effective on March 19th, 2024.

While the Board believes it is no longer necessary to require masking for all attendees to have a safe event, we still firmly believe that masking is a personal choice. We ask all of our attendees to respect the wishes of other attendees on their choices to wear masks or not - following value #2 in our Code of Conduct.

The Board of Directors will continue monitoring the Local Hospital Admission Levels - the recommended metric to watch by the Chicago Department of Public Health. As of March 11 2024, we are currently in low admission level. If this metric rises to the medium or high admission levels, the Board will reevaluate whether our current policy needs any revisions.

Chi Hack Night is a volunteer and community effort. While our Board of Directors is responsible for communicating and enforcing these policies, volunteers and breakout group leaders also share this responsibility in their roles. We ask that Members and regular attendees also help with normalizing these behaviors, but ask that they refrain from any confrontation or enforcement and report any issues to an available Board member or email info@chihacknight.org.

With your continued support we can continue to ensure safe in-person Chi Hack Nights!

Previous Policy Updates

Below is an archive of our previous policies and when they were enacted.

Updated Policy - June 2023

As stated in our initial policy below, the Board considers updates to our COVID-19 policy when we feel it appropriate. As of June 2023, we have made the decision to drop proof of vaccination as a requirement for our In Person events.

We continue asking that all attendees wear a mask while attending our In Person Events.

As always, we appreciate the commitment of all our attendees who help contribute to a welcoming and safe environment for all. If the board deems it appropriate to make further changes to our COVID-19 policy, we will update this policy and notify our community.

Initial Policy - September 2022

At Chi Hack Night we continue to believe in the importance of hosting in-person events particularly in a time where meaningful social life is so vital, but we must work together to do so safely. We recognize our civic responsibility of standing in solidarity with marginalized communities, particularly as they have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. As such, we have created a policy for protecting our community from COVID-19.

Ventilation and masking have been consistently demonstrated to be effective mitigation strategies particularly when coupled with vaccination. We take these measures to make sure everyone feels safe and welcome in an already stressful time. We appreciate the fact that some people have unique home or health circumstances that require them to take precaution measures.

This includes people with underlying health conditions for whom the risks of infection can be particularly outsized. It also includes people caring for loved ones with health conditions. We also acknowledge a range of additional personal and home circumstances that might require people to take additional precautions; we stand in solidarity with all our fellow Chicagoans.

To protect our community from COVID-19 during in-person events, we will:

• Require proof of vaccination to attend in-person (vaccination card)
• Open windows to provide additional ventilation (weather/temperature permitting)
• Require proper masking unless actively eating, drinking, or presenting
  • Friendly, respectful, understanding but consistent reminders and enforcement of our masking policy
  • Clear eating area designation
• Monitor transmission trends and variants consistent with CDC, City, and County guidance
• Seek input from our membership and attendees
• Respect people’s preferences and boundaries, striving to be open and responsive to our communities’ expressed needs, preferences and requests for accommodation
• Provide clear and consistent communication including
  • Announcements
  • Blog posts
  • Slack reminders
  • Social media

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