Important Notice About Public Consideration

In the past few months, there have been two issues that have been brought up. One being unrelated to DevMeets themselves but still has an affect on future meets, while the other issue took place at a previous DevMeet last month.

To start with the first incident, back in September, the Youtube blogger Tobuscus organised a meet and greet for his UK followers to meet up at Hyde Park. The meet sadly got out of hand, the turn out was close to the 2000 mark, and people attending were pushing, shoving, and climbing over the fence at the Albert Memorial in order to get to see the Youtube star. Though it was not Tobuscus' or the organizers fault, and they did their best to calm and maintain the crowd, police were called and people were hospitalized.

While this was not a DevMeet, it sadly affects future meets in parks, if police or park officials become anxious about large groups meeting in the park. This leads to the second incident that happened at a meet in Hyde Park in September also. Two deviants attending the meet, brought along from home their fire swords and staffs. Now initially, the matter was done with there and then as one person was nearly burnt and escaped with just burnt hairs. But it was later discovered just how bad it could have been, not only for safety reasons of course, but if the group was spotted with fire in the park. Not only is lighting fires in any of the London Parks illegal and punished with heavy fines, but it would result in banning orders for all the attendees.

The point I am making is, it would be easy to just say fire staffs are banned and be done with it. Also of course, I hold no grudges to the ones who brought them along, the fact is this shouldnt have happened in the first place.  I believe I speak for all the other event organizers that we would never want to become killjoys and tell people what they can and cant do, we arent teachers taking kids out on a school trip, we are all together as a group. That said, as a group, we are all responsible for our actions, and the actions of one person will sadly reflect onto the rest of us. This is why it is important that we show consideration to each other, the people around us and the area we are in. If we are to have future meets, especially after the police being cautious after the previous Tobuscus meet, we must give them no reason to ever suspect the same from us.

That all aside, I will end on a good note. Despite these incidents, all the meets I've attended and hosted have gone off with out a hitch. Attendees always cleaned up after themselves and considerate about not bothering other visitors to the park. So rest assured that many if not all of you already do a good job, this journal is just a reminder.

I look forward to putting this behind us all and getting back to hosting and attending many more meets, and I hope to see many on you there.

Thank you for reading

Nay

PS.

A quick list of what items should or shouldnt be brought, any questions of anything specific, ask away.

Fire Dancing Staff - (Not allowed, end of)
Weed - (Please dont, too many young deviants, plus its illegal in public)
Alcohol - (Perfectly fine, but please drink responsibly, you must also be over 18)
Bikes, Skateboards, Scooters, etc - (Fine to have along with you, but some places may not let you ride inside the park)
Nerf Guns (Absolutely, but please be careful not to hit any none participants)

All other things such as cameras and sketchpads are of course encouraged, but please look after them. We cant be held responsible if things go missing or stolen.