Transformus 2021 update
-Fellow Mysterians,
The past year has been difficult for us all. Our community, our country, and our world have faced challenges and tragedies we couldn’t imagine only a year ago. We’ll spare you the platitudes. You’ve lived it and it’s been rough. What does this mean for Transformus?
It is with deep sadness that we must announce that we will not be holding Transformus in 2021. Rest assured that the Transformus organization is fully committed to returning to operation as soon as we are able. The volunteer organization is still operating and we have the resources necessary to return to hosting events.
We, the Transformus Leadership Caucus (TLC), have discussed at great length our options for 2021, our duties to the community, and our responsibilities as citizens. Through countless meetings we have evaluated options and scenarios, and we have come to the conclusion that it is not responsible to hold an event this year.
Why did we come to this conclusion?
Uncertainty
To create Transformus takes months of planning and work, and we can’t effectively plan for an event that might not happen. Too much uncertainty exists about the COVID-19 pandemic and timelines for mass vaccination. The easing of restrictions on events may happen, and mass gatherings may be allowed, but we do not know at this time. We believe that spending money for services and products we might not use is financially irresponsible.
We simply don’t know how long it will take our country to reach herd immunity. New variants of the virus continue to emerge, and we can’t predict how these variants may spread or how they will hinder efforts to fight the pandemic. We are not willing to hold a burn that has the potential to become a super-spreader event and endanger the lives of not just participants, but also their communities at home.
Civic responsibility
As event organizers, we are responsible not just for making sure the event happens, but we are responsible to our teams and their leaders, to our participants, to the communities which host our events, and to the vendors that provide the equipment and services that help our events function smoothly. We believe it would be irresponsible for us to bring a large gathering of people from so many disparate locations together this year in a way that could cause the spread of disease and potentially result in someone getting sick or even dying.
What were our options?
We considered many possibilities, including holding a smaller event with fewer people, rapid testing at the gate, requiring vaccination records to attend, and other ideas. We concluded that many of these scenarios would place too great a burden on volunteers to be feasible, and they may still not be effective in ensuring that a person coming through the gate would be safe to attend. We also considered postponing until Fall. Several other events have already been postponed. We believe that too much uncertainty exists to know whether we could—or should—produce an event. We sincerely hope that by this Fall, we will have seemed overcautious in our evaluations.
What’s next? When can we have Transformus again?
We WILL reconvene Transformus as soon as we are able. What are our requirements? Our friends at Lakes of Fire shared their requirements and we wholeheartedly agree with them. In order to hold a burn the following conditions must be met:
1. Large gatherings are legally allowed. State and local health departments will provide guidelines for when large events will be allowed. A large portion of the US population will likely have to be vaccinated before these restrictions are lifted.
2. We will have enough volunteers to run our teams and make the burn happen.
3. The ability to acquire insurance for our event.
4. Confidence from event leadership that we can host an event that won’t inflict harm upon the attendees and the community that hosts us.
We will continue to meet to discuss how and when our next event can happen safely. We will discuss ways we can work to improve our community and our event.
We love hearing from you and we value your input. Would you like to help improve our events? Would you be interested in taking a more active role in event planning or team leadership? Please fill out the leadership form and let us know how you’d like to contribute. We are always looking for new committee members, team leads, and volunteers of all kinds. Do you have ideas for improvements to the burn, creating art, fostering community engagement, promoting inclusivity, safety, or anything else? Please send them to us at [email protected].
We know this has been a difficult year for everyone. Having to be away from friends and family, missing events and activities that we enjoy, losing loved ones, uncertainty, and everything else that is scary in the world right now. Transformus has a great community of people and will return when it is safe to do so.
Until we can see each other again, keep your lights burning bright.
Evan
Turtle
Tuesday
Andi
Shawn
Lee
Bryan
Tanya
Nugget