What is the association vision on the new political situation in regards to Drupal cons

I posted in the other topic too, the one asking if we shouldn't consider moving hosting of Drupal.org for similar reasons. Here too I can't think of anything radical that we can do like cancel Drupal events in the 'States. But how about some token change. One year we move the North American DrupalCon to Canada or Mexico and the next, if things do not improve, maybe all the way to a country making it to the top of some freedom listings.

Look, Canada maybe a bit cold, but it's right there and in easy reach and big enough to protest the degradation of freedom for a couple of years without repeating cities and it feels like one's seeing the world a bit more.

I know that if I do travel I already don't take computer equipment or logins with me at all and buy a cell phone when I land. If I fly to the states I suppose some extra precautions may be to lube up before landing and walk with your hands visible at all times ;-) And that's coming from an old white guy - I have no idea how minorities must feel travelling there, nor those rare people advocating for all our freedoms, the very ones we want at the DrupalCon.

PS:

Twitter references? I really only feel I start understanding people by the fourth of fifth paragraph of reading. Single sentences often feel like the headlines on those magazines one sees at rural store check-out counters with photos of celebrities on the beach and guys with orange hair or riding half naked on horseback (maybe together soon). I'm never sure if Drupal.org may have gone all the way to campus safe zone and comedy is prohibited, but I'm from South Africa and we sent our Trevor Noah to come help out at the 'States' (that's not single quotes, they're apostrophes of omission and possession, I think) Comedy Central. Anyway, I hope I die with a sense of humour and the ability to one day make even MortenDK blush in ad-lib excitement.

Yes, I seem to vastly underestimate the portion of the Drupal community from the USA (just judging by the comments thus far). Maybe a gesture would be an alternative.

If the commercial tech industry can come out with quotes like:

"It's painful to see the personal cost of this executive order on our colleagues," ... "We’ve always made our view on immigration issues known publicly and will continue to do so." ~ Google CEO Sundar Pichai this past Friday.

Then at least a statement of openness from an open community and project like Drupal will be helpful. Maybe a small fund to help a few people directly impeded by new travel limitations helping a hand full of people with their travel arrangements, perhaps in cooperation with a well known rights organisation from the 'States?

Maybe also assurance and reminder that we do still have a full alternative of the European DrupalCon after all. I'd love to see more, but we have to live with what is practical and it would be nice to see our free, open and inclusive values expressed somehow.

I'm lucky not to only know people from the USA that are very much in line with our values system but when some in our community feel excluded like this it can not be something that goes unanswered.

I'm getting emotional about this now, so should stop posting.

Statement

After sleeping on the matter a bit (just woke up now and at first coffee) I realised that it's much easier for a commercial company to make a statement like that because of their hierarchical management structure. For an association or more, just a wide community like ours, a single statement cannot represent everyone. So it's the very existence of topics and threads like this one that should stand testament.

Known and leading figures in our community and speakers and organisers and so on can still individually find the time to make small mentions of their own positions by their own conscience and persuasion and perhaps open discussions or just conversations with others.

Assistance

Considering the news referenced by Gábor perhaps it is not a great idea to fund / assist travel to the US when it would subject people to such invasiveness.

Moderation (Self)

I mostly avoid posting in topics like this any more and have pretty much completely sanitised my Facebook and other on-line profiles. Each time I travel I clean a bit more and reconsider posting what I do. Of The few posts I made the last two days would, I'm sure, trigger a shift in profile association ;-) Pity, but now I will worry as much about such an on-line profile when I consider travel to the 'States as I do when travelling to some dire African and Middle Eastern countries. (Yup, even more keywords there) ;-)

Erratum

Oh, and I mangled the last sentence in my last post a bit. In stead of "I'm lucky not to only know people from" it should have been "I'm lucky to only know people from", dropping the "not" ;-)

Given I shall be visiting North Africa only a couple of weeks before Baltimore, maybe it is becoming a bit of a risk trying to get in to the US. Then the risk to myself of being in the country is on top of that!

Hmm - and I was really looking forward to it... :-/

Thank you for caring so much about our community and asking such smart questions during these uncertain times. The recent turn of events certainly caught us by surprise. As a nonpartisan nonprofit, we don’t have influence over these geopolitical situations; however, we remain committed to growing and supporting our community in a manner consistent with our values.

DrupalCon Baltimore and DrupalCon North America 2018, which will be in the U.S, too, are already under contract. This means we have no option for moving these events. Due to our financial constraints, we are unable to break these venue and hotel contracts to find a new location.

Later this year we will pick the location for DrupalCon North America 2019. As a part of that process we will re-evaluate and reprioritize what criteria are used to select a location. Events are unfolding quickly, and we will do our best to make sure DrupalCon is as accessible as possible while the U.S. visa and immigration policies continue to evolve.

In the meantime, staff wants to help as much as possible. To understand the scope of impact, we looked at DrupalCon New Orleans attendance data. 86% of attendees (3,000 people) were from the U.S, which means 14% (475 people) came from outside the U.S., 5% came from Canada (170 people), 1% came from the UK (36 people), and another 1% came from India (37 people), additional countries were less represented. [See data here]. This shows that many people could be impacted.

There is a lack of clarity around the executive order, and staff are learning as fast as they can what the recent directives mean for attendees coming from outside the U.S. Given the uncertainty, we urge you to contact your local U.S. consular office for more information about your travel to the U.S. Please note, that The Drupal Association provides DrupalCon invitation letters, to aid in the process of applying for a visa.

Here are few other points to consider whether you want to attend DrupalCon North America or participate from afar.

For those impacted by the recent immigration policy, DrupalCon will refund your ticket if

• You are not able to attain a visa
• You are denied an entry at the U.S. border

For those attending DrupalCon, we will continue to provide a friendly and welcoming experience, celebrating our diverse community by working with these two groups:

• The Community Working Group (CWG). a volunteer group whose mission is to uphold our community’s code of conduct and maintain a friendly and welcoming environment for the Drupal project - particularly at DrupalCon. We are incredibly grateful for George DeMet, Adam Hill, Mike Anello, and Emma Karayiannis, who serve on this working group.
• The Drupal Diversity & Inclusion (DD&I), a collective of volunteers who believe that the the Drupal community should be a safe, respectful and inclusive space for everyone. They also believe that the Drupal project benefits from a diverse contribution pool, where opportunity and access are available to all. DD&I works to create an inclusive infrastructure to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to participate and contribute. I am equally grateful for this group and leadership from Nikki Stevens. With the help of DD&I, The Drupal Association has launched a new diversity program for DrupalCon.

For those who can’t attend for whatever reason, our commitment to inclusivity always reaches beyond the walls of the event.

• We record and post each session to our YouTube channel the same day that they occur.
• Community members also stay connected during DrupalCon through our social media channels and IRC.

Thank you again for starting this discussion. We are listening to your concerns and encourage you to continue sharing your thoughts with us. We will monitor the situation and share more as we know more.

I'm glad to hear that sharing data gives more insight into the situation.

We certainly want to help those who might be impacted by the change in immigration policy. Hopefully, our community members have laptops with a browser to access the sessions on Youtube. I do recognize that there is a digital divide and that this issue is far reaching - more so than people realize. I'm actually working with a nonprofit in my area to address this in my local community.

The Drupal Association is not able to fund a laptop give away program, but I do know other organizations who can along provide free or lower cost laptops. If you or others want to get involved in digital divide programs please let me know and I will connect you.

Megan

Just read this http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/12/14583124/nasa-sidd-bikkannavar-detaine..., so be prepared to give them full access to your phone and probably other devices. If they do things like this to native Americans, it makes me wonder how they "handle" non residents.

I made up my mind, no Drupalcon for me in the US.

The worst is the uncertainty and the fact I have to prepare all my devices to cross a border, I don't think trying to trick border patrol officials is a good idea.

Might be of interest regarding the scholarships, pycon grant the scholarship in case people are not allowed to enter the country, https://pycon.blogspot.be/2017/02/financial-aid-deadline-is-february-15....

I don't blame people for not wanting to travel to the U.S. I probably wouldn't do it either if I wasn't already here. In fact, I live in North Carolina and I have cousins that won't visit because they are boycotting our hateful and stupid HB2. I understand it's too late to change Baltimore, but I am willing to (ask my employer to) take on the added expense of traveling to Canada or Mexico (or Cuba!) for future NA cons.

I think we can and should look at the impact of the Trump/Bannon administration on people both in the US and the rest of the planet. These actions are not only unfairly limiting travel, they also stimulate hostility and discrimination against people based on religion and ethnicity. This hurts every member of our global community.

Especially because we are an association of human beings and not a company organized around a financial bottom line, I think the Drupal Association should make a statement and add our voices to the loud chorus calling out against the creeping fascism emanating from Washington, DC. This is a moment unlike any other in our history.