FUUSD Reopening Team Update: April, 2021

Your team studying how to safely resume in-person activities at church realizes full well how anxious everyone is to return. The team continues to look at government regulations, agency guidelines and scientific details. Much care lies behind any recommendations.

Our recommended approach to resuming in-person gatherings starts with the lowest risks, namely, small groups in outdoor settings. Provided certain precautions are observed, meetings of this type may resume at a date we will soon designate. Our specifications:
 
- Only outdoor meetings on campus to start with (not higher-risk indoor ones).
- Small groups only, up to 12 persons (not higher-risk larger ones).
- Established First UU Church groups only (no outside groups).
- Youth groups will not be permitted to meet at first (due to low likelihood of vaccinations).
- A clearly identified group leader will be responsible to know and enforce precautions.
- Those who meet will need to wear masks at all times and observe social distancing.
- No singing, food or drink will be permitted (to minimize chances of spreading the virus).
- Bathroom occupancy (like elevator occupancy) will be limited to one person at a time.
- Meetings will have to be scheduled in advance, designating the size, leader, purpose, etc.
- Clustering and/or limiting meetings to certain days of the week will be a consideration.
- Participants will have to sign in, and pass an honest-answer health-check questionnaire.
- These good-faith questionnaires will be administered by the group's leader.
 
Further considerations:
 
- Vaccinations won't be absolutely required but are strongly recommended.
- Vaccinations benefit individuals and support the greater good of the church community.
- Hybrid meetings (in-person outdoors plus on-line access) may be quite difficult.
- While wi-fi access is available on campus all other equipment is a group's responsibility.
- Each group should consider how best to accommodate all who might want to participate.
- There may be some logistical matters about tables and chairs for a group to consider.
- Surfaces will be cleaned but contamination concerns have diminished among experts.
 
Interested small groups will need to identify themselves sooner rather than later so that the magnitude and general types of interest are known as these guidelines continue to evolve.
 
If your group will want to meet under the stated conditions please notify Robie Evans of your group's name, leader, size and general purpose, so we understand what interest is out there. Later on, Rose Riedel is the scheduler you'll need to be in touch with about a specific time and place.
 
The reopening team will gain knowledge from the small outdoor meetings, helping to set us on a path toward our eventual goal of indoor worship services.
 
Air circulation factors and air filtering options will remain a top priority as we move toward any consideration of indoor gatherings