This comes from the event's yahoo group, AUTREATINFO
Quote:
We have an established tradition of not disclosing the exact location
of Autreat. People are only informed of the name and address of the
venue *after* they have registered.
The primary reason this policy was established was because of concerns
about one particular person, who is infamous in the autistic community
for habitual stalking, harassment, and threats. (This same person is
also the primary inspiration for the identity verification requirement
to join ANI-L.)
At the time we established the non-disclosure policy for the Autreat
venue, Autreat was being held at a venue out in the country, with no
on-site security staff, and some distance from the nearest city with a
police department.
We now have a different situation in several regards:
1) The person who caused the original concern is not likely to target
Autreat or other ANI functions again, because he knows that if he
does, we know his real name, know where he lives, know how to contact
his family, and will not hesitate to report him.
2) Since 2004, Autreat has been held on a university campus that has
its own on-site security officers, and is in a city where city police
can respond within minutes if needed.
3) Various individuals have reported concerns about people in their
own personal lives (estranged spouse/partner, non-custodial parent
threatening to abduct a child, someone stalking a particular person,
as opposed to an entire group), and been worried that those people
might try to get to them at Autreat.
4) There is starting to be a bit of media interest in autistic adults,
which is both good news and potentially bad news. At Autreat we set
conditions which media people have to agree to, in order to be
permitted at Autreat. Sometimes journalists have kept to their
agreements, and sometimes they have not. But at least if they couldn't
find out where Autreat was without going through the Planning
Committee, we knew who they were and could keep an eye on them.
To summarize, then:
The person we were originally worried about, who has a long history of
targeting autism-related organizations on a group level, is not likely
to be a concern at Autreat anymore.
There may be individual Autreat attendees who have concerns about
stalkers in their own personal lives.
There may be a concern about intrusive media if the Autreat location
is made public.
And now we have another factor to consider, which is travel arrangements.
With the past venues, we could publicize where the nearest airport was
to the Autreat venue, and that allowed people to check airfares and
calculate travel budgets, without needing to disclose the actual venue
location. ("Suburban Philadelphia" allows people to budget for travel
to Philadelphia, but there are a LOT of possible venues in that area,
so it doesn't give away which one Autreat was at.) But the venue that
is the top choice of Planning Committee right now (we are just
negotiating to find out if we can get child care staff within our
budget) is in a small city, so that if we publicize the nearest
airport, that will pretty much give away the venue itself to anyone
who takes the trouble to look for campuses near that airport.
18 Jan 2008, 9:34 am
