Nick Montfort has passed along some info on the status of returning to in-person meetups at MIT. The upshot is that it is still not possible for the fall semester.

The Trope Tank has not yet been moved back out of storage. There are a couple of possible spaces where it might move to, but neither will be ready until October, and it will not be fully moved in for a few weeks after that.

On top of that, MIT policy now requires that visitors be escorted by campus members when entering buildings. They are working on an event system which will allow visitors to register for events (see “Tim Tickets” in the FAQ) but this is not yet available.

The upshot is that in-person meetups are still too much hassle and risk for the rest of this year. We’ll check back in early 2022 and see whether the situation has improved. Until then, Zoom meetings will continue!