[Foundation-l] Contingency plans for Wikimania

[Ray Saintonge]

Chad wrote:
> Exactly. The embassy staff will certainly help if it's a major issue, but
> for something minor (like I said: being laid up for a day or so due a
> medical issue), is something that the local organization team and the
> Foundation can play a big big role in. I've traveled abroad before, and
> before my group left, we registered our travel with the embassy. We
> also formed a volunteer phone tree (which everyone signed up for!), so
> notification of family+friends of a problem (both real or potential) could
> be carried out quickly and easily.
>
> I don't see why some people would be opposed to such a thing. As Greg
> points out, such things are often mandatory. Even if you make it
> optional, as I suggested, it could still be a nice asset.
Depending on embassies would not be practical.  It may work for U.S. 
citizens or those from countries which have significant representation 
at Wikimania, but when you are talking about people from 50 different 
countries someone would have to notify 50 different embassies in Cairo, 
and many smaller countries may not even have an embassy there, but have 
their diplomatic representatives do service with several countries but 
be based elsewhere.  Handling something like this ourselves is more 
efficient.

Ec