To maximize safety during the COVID-19 pandemic we’re making the following requests of BABAM Members:
All BABAM Members:
- If you don’t feel well, or have a fever or cough, or if you have a household member who recently tested positive for COVID or otherwise have been recently exposed, stay home!
- Don’t sing or chant or shout without a mask
- Do your best to keep 10 feet away from other musicians anytime masks are off
- Politely request that others give our members the space we need.
- Prevent others from walking through the group of musicians
BABAM Members who play horns/wind instruments:
- Optionally, wear a sign that indicates that you’re not wearing a mask, and to please stay clear (like this one, feel free to print it)
- Wear a mask at all times when you’re not blowing into an instrument.
- Take measures to limit aerosol spread, including but not limited to:
- If you have a spit valve, empty it into a rag or close to the ground instead of spraying out
- Don’t share instruments or mouthpieces
- If the wind all comes out of a bell on your instrument, consider covering it with cloth. (We’re not sure that this actually helps but it probably does, and certainly looks safer in our mask-wearing-as-caring era.)
BABAM Members who don’t play horns/wind instruments:
- Wear a mask at all times.
- If possible, help form a barrier between horn/wind players and others, and help maintain the 10’ zone for horn/wind players
- Prevent others from walking through the group of musicians
BABAM Gig Coordinators / Dispatchers (in advance of the gig)
- Speak with Action Organizers to find out if horn/wind players will have sufficient space to play in a socially-distant manner. Make sure the Action Organizer is aware that there is probably some contagion risk through using wind instruments.
- Discuss specific locations (i.e. plaza, etc.) with the Action Organizer, and if there’s a way to prevent people from walking through the band in its spaced-out formation
- Only post gigs in outdoor locations
- Only post gigs where we expect other participants/attendees to be wearing masks
BABAM Gig Leaders (day of the gig)
- Before the event, discuss these COVID protocols with folks who have RSVP’ed. If possible, convene a meeting before the event begins and repeat these instructions.
- If possible, designate one Gig Leader to help coordinate maintaining this level of space.
- During the event, attempt to ensure that all horn/wind players have sufficient space to play, and arrange for non-horn players (i.e. percussionists) to help maintain space for them, possibly by forming a perimeter, etc.
- Strive to keep the musicians physically distant from other people while playing, by at least 10 feet
- Ask musicians, where possible, to take measures to limit aerosols, including:
- Whenever not playing a wind instrument, put your mask back on
- If you have a spit valve, empty it into a rag or close to the ground, instead of spraying out
- Don’t share instruments or mouthpieces
- If the wind all comes out of a bell on your instrument, consider covering it with cloth
- Don’t sing or chant or shout without a mask