COVID-19 PROTOCOLS

Animal Grantmakers is committed to the health and safety of all who will attend our 2022 Annual Conference. We take the ongoing and evolving risks of COVID-19 transmission and infection seriously.

Current public health guidance indicates that with proper protocols in place, we can gather safely in person this month.

Please read the following COVID-19 protocols for participation in the conference. They apply to all participants—attendees, speakers, and guests. Animal Grantmakers reserves the right to prohibit entry to the conference to any individual who fails to follow these protocols, including providing required documentation. Overall, we will rely on our collective care and mutual support for one another to uphold these protocols.

We will continue to monitor and update safety precautions for the conference in coordination with trusted national resources, state and local public health agencies, and the venues hosting our conference events. Additional precautions may be required. All expectations will be clearly communicated to attendees before the conference and upon arrival.

This guidance covers the following topics, some of which require your action before you arrive at the conference.

• Vaccination and Testing
• Masks
• Social-distancing personal preferences
• Residence Inn Berkeley and Brower Center protocols
• Basis for our protocols and helpful websites
• Contact information

Thank you for your collaboration and cooperation!

VACCINATION and TESTING:

Within 48 hours of the conference:

All attendees are required to provide proof of one of the following:

• Full and up-to-date vaccination for COVID-19 OR
• A negative PCR test administered by a certified provider within 48 hours of arrival at the conference.

For your safety and the safety of others, please understand that if you are not approved or if you do not submit your documentation in advance of the conference, you will not be permitted to attend.

If you have symptoms before traveling, please stay home.

We strongly encourage you to take a COVID-19 rapid-results self-test the first day you will participate in the conference, before you arrive (this includes the field trips, TED-type talk rehearsal, and evening reception on Sunday). You do not have to report your result, but if you test positive or are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19, please do not come to the conference. Please contact Lisa Rapps, our conference planner, as soon as possible at conference@animalgrantmakers.org or by phone or text at 602-793-9150 to let her know.

Please plan on bringing your own test kits, though we will have a limited supply available onsite. We recommend you check with your health insurer about coverage/reimbursement for your purchase of test kits.

Masks are optional. Attendees may choose to wear a mask at any time during the conference. We will provide masks onsite throughout the conference, though of course you can bring your own.

We will have a name badge system that identifies attendees’ social-distancing preferences and helps communicate them to others. (For example, we may use color coding: red to ask other attendees to keep their distance from you; yellow to let other attendees know it is OK with you for them to be close but not make physical contact; or green to let other attendees know you are OK with handshakes/hugs.)

We consulted a variety of sources to guide our decisions about protocols for the conference. First and foremost, we looked at federal, state, county, and local government information. We also looked at the protocols for a select number of other conferences, particularly those similar to ours, with a relatively smaller number of attendees and with dates closer to ours.

In general, government sources suggest a number of risk factors to consider. These include:

• The number of COVID-19 cases within the community. The CDC tracks infection rates by county. Alameda County, in which Berkeley is located, had a low risk of local infection as of Oct. 3. (The levels are low, medium and high.) We will continue to track the CDC’s information until and during the conference. We encourage you to look at this information for the county from which you will travel to the conference.
• Number of attendees. The more people there are at an event, the greater the likelihood for exposure. We expect 50-70 attendees, including speakers, at our conference. (This does not include hotel and Brower Center staff who may be interacting with conference attendees.)
• The setting. Indoor events, especially in places with poor ventilation, pose more risk than outdoor events. We are relying on the COVID-19 protocols of the Residence Inn Berkeley and Brower Center. Please see below for more details.
• Potential for exposure during travel. We also are relying on federal, state, county, and local government information for this risk factor. Airports, airplanes, bus stations, buses, train stations, trains, and public transport are all places where physical distancing might be challenging and ventilation could be poor. Please follow the guidelines and requirements for any transport location or transportation you use to travel to the conference.

Please note that while we have looked at a variety of sources to inform our protocols and considered these and other risk factors, there is no way to guarantee attendees will not get COVID-19 as a result of attending the conference. You must decide for yourself what you are comfortable with.

Here are some of the government websites that we consulted:

• COVID-19 by County | CDC
• Symptoms of COVID-19 | CDC
• COVID-19 Testing: What You Need to Know | CDC
• California Department of Public Health Guidance for Face Coverings (ca.gov)
• Home | COVID-19 | Alameda County Public Health Department (acgov.org)
• COVID-19 | City of Berkeley (berkeleyca.gov)

CONTACT INFORMATION: