From: whheydt@pbhya.PacBell.COM (Wilson Heydt)
Subject: Re: Unescorted Minors at Events
Reply-To: whheydt@PacBell.COM (Wilson Heydt)
Organization: Pacific * Bell, San Ramon, CA
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 15:47:33 GMT
Keywords: minors releases

In article <1992Oct12.043544.1059@egf-bbs.uucp> aboz@egf-bbs.uucp (Aboz the Untidy) writes:
>At Our last event (the second we've held) a number of people came from an
>incipient group about 100 miles away.  The attendees consisted ofone adult
>and half a dozen or so teen-agers (14 to 17), none of whom had a release
>signed by their parents.  

Welsome to the wonderful world of nightmares....

>What do you do in a case like that?  Tell them,
>Sorry, you drove 2 hours for nothing?  

That's waht your're *supposed* to do.

>Do you let then in and hope nothing
>bad happens?  

This is (probably) what most folks would do--though a stern lecture
(at least) should accomapny it, plus copies of the relevant forms for
the future.

>Do you try to fax (as if there are any fax machines in
>Henning, MN) a signed release?  

Fax machines are pretty common these days.  While you may not find a
public fax service in a *really* small town, they're amazingly
available.  Surely there were larger towns closer than the full trip?
(The local hospital might have felt cooperative if the situation was
explained--hospitals now use fax machines for this purpose--and an
offer to pay for the phone calls and fax usage were made.)

>Well, we let them in.  

>Then we were
>confronted with the 14 yr old who took Miller-in-the-Middle as an excuse
>to grab some tush.  If he were an adult he would have been
>slapped...repeatedly.

And nobody took him aside and put the Fear of God into him?  At the
very least, it could be pointed out to him that he was there very much
on suffereance and his friends would make his ride home pretty
miserable if he got them all tossed out....  Talking to one of his
friends similary might also produce results.  Nothing like making
someone *else* responsible for the behavior of a proplem person to
ease the load on the officials that would otherwise about it.  (I
can't take credit for this trick--I learned it from our Kingdom
Constable.)

>We are in the midst of planning our realy huge January event, and plan to
>include a page in the flier stating "No one under 18 admitted without a
>properly signed release".  You think that will help?

I can't hurt.  You can always ask those who show up if they saw the
flyer.  In the answer is 'yes', you can ask them if the *read* it--and
then point out the notice in question.

>Just wondering if other groups have run into this.

It happens.  It happens too damn much.

In the long run, probably the only solution is to deny entrance to
those who transgress and then make loud, public announcements about
what happened and why.  Some folks remain Unclear on the Concept for
an amazing length of time unless they get theri noses rubbed in their
own messes.

	--Hal

        Hal Ravn, Province of the Mists, West Kingdom
        Wilson H. Heydt, Jr.,  Albany, CA 94706,  510/524-8321 (home)
-- 
Hal Heydt                    |    "Boycott Time-Warner"
Analyst, Pacific*Bell        |         --J. Danforth Quayle
510-823-5447                 |    "... kill all the lawyers."
whheydt@pbhya.PacBell.COM    |         --William Shakespeare
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