The Board would like to thank the Reopening Task Force for their hard and thorough work and their comprehensive final report. Kim R (chair), Cindi H, David K, George C, Larry L, Rosemary, Wanda E, and Wendy H served on the task force.
The reopening plan and supporting materials are available under the “Reopening Tab.” Here is a summary of the most critical points combined with some plans we have going forward.
Standard Precautions
Throughout this information, “standard precautions” mean:
Mask wearing for all who enter church (except a lone speaker at the podium)
Social distance of 6 ft indoors (outdoors, by mutual consent) between “bubbles/pods.”
Frequent hand washing/sanitizing
Taking temperature at door (touchless thermometer)
If not feeling well, congregants stay home
Metrics
The Reopening Task Force identified metrics for a variety of activities on our church campus. We are using data from COVID ActNow, The Board will make the most conservative decision based on numbers for Kingsport Metro and Johnson City Metro areas.
Average NEW CASES over the last 7 days
Average INFECTION RATE over the last 14 days
Average POSITIVITY RATE over the last 7 days
The following are the various levels of reopening.
Church Services—General
Green
Standard-length in-person services
Standard precautions
Yellow
45-minute in-person service AND live Zoom service each Sunday
Reduced capacity
Standard precautions
Red
No in-person services, live Zoom services (hopefully beginning in October, also recorded and posted on the YouTube channel)
Religious Education
The RE Collaborative (REC) will not offer formal classes on Sunday mornings until young children can also be vaccinated. Until then, the REC with collaborate with the Families Group to organize fellowship activities in outdoor spaces around the Tri-Cities for connection. The Youth Group will meet for a few events this year incorporating standard precautions as well.
Green
Standard precautions
Yellow
Standard precautions if volunteers are available
Red
None
Coffee Hour
Green
Standard beverage service
Individually wrapped food
Indoors or outdoors
Standard precautions
Yellow
Bottled water provided
Individually wrapped food may be possible
Outdoors only
Standard precautions
Red
None
Committee, group meetings, gatherings
Green
Precautions determined by the science at the time
Yellow
Outside or inside
Standard precautions
Red
10 or fewer
Standard precautions
Last of all
The various documents under the “Reopening” tab include much more information, including guidelines for live music during services, what needs to happen before we can meet in person, and what an in-person Sunday might look like, so we recommend that you look at the full Reopening Plan for more information.