On Wednesday February 16th, 2022, Holston Valley Unitarian Universalist Church's Board of Trustees voted to approve a new Covid Response Plan recommended by the Reopening Task Force. These changes reflect new recommendations issued by the Unitarian Universalist Association on January 21st, and our desire to give our congregation members more choices as people's risk tolerances and safety needs vary widely during this phase of the pandemic.
The Covid Response Plan is incredibly thorough and we invite you to examine the details here. But the main recommendations are as follows:
The Board appoints a small (2-3 person + Tiffany) Risk Assessment Team to determine HVUUC’s Risk Level each Thursday and publish our current Risk Level & the accompanying decision to hold in-person worship that Sunday or not. They may consider all metrics as well as any other contributing factors, with discretion, when determining risk level. They will also field requests for exceptions to the charts.
We aim for offering our first in-person service on Sunday, March 13, 2022 (barring circumstances that would make that unwise or impossible).
We begin immediately to train greeters & ushers, and educate the congregation on expectations & procedures.
Here are some really important things about this plan that we want to make sure you know:
We will continue to have online services. A survey will go out soon to assess who is planning on staying online. We will figure out how to continue to meet the needs of our members and friends who will be staying online-only or primarily-online.
March 13th is our GOAL, but it depends on volunteer support, important technology getting sorted out, and the Risk Assessment Team determining that it is ok to open based on the Metrics & Questions to Consider outlined in the Pandemic Response Plan. Even if we don't make this goal, we will work toward opening up to dual-platform services (both online and in-person) as soon as we possibly can.
The Risk Assessment Team will meet soon and will update what Level of Risk we are at. A separate announcement will go out about that within the week, along with educational materials outlined in the plan about what that Level will mean for us.
We are going to take our Masking and Distancing precautions very seriously. If you plan on joining us for in-person services, a commitment to following the guidelines outlined for the current Level of Risk will be essential to mitigating as much risk as possible.
This is an exciting new time in the life of our congregation, and I look forward to seeing many of you in-person soon.
It also continues to be a scary time for those among us who are at the most risk, and I want to reiterate my commitment to continuing to support you and your connection to this community.
With joy,
Rev. Tiffany Sapp