As you can hear, there is a fire alarm situation located on the lobby level that is being handled. Elevators are disabled and the hotel has not yet told people to evacuate. We will hold the start of the first session until the alarm has been resolved and chairs will need to adjust their speakers' allotted times accordingly.
Closing the loop on Saturday morning’s fire alarm:
1. The alarm was caused by a group of individuals experiencing homelessness, who were smoking in the emergency-exit stairwell. There are no lingering conditions about which one should be concerned.
2. Please note that while the culprit was not an ICA attendee,
it’s as good a time as any to remind everyone that all ICA events are non-smoking.
3. We have met with the hotel about the problematic nature of prolonged alarm situations in which no explicit instructions on whether to stay or evacuate are given, as well as reiterating that binary phrases like “ladies and gentlemen” ostracize many of our members.
Thank you for your goodwill and patience as we worked with the hotel to resolve this situation; we hope you enjoy the rest of your conference!
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Tom Mankowski
ICA
Washington DC
United States
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