Oldtown Reconnection Team
Wednesday, March 17, 2021
Attending: Pastor Kelly, Linda Vogler, Cindi Barkley, Pat Sanford, Ed Clavette, Leah Moynihan, Kevin Graves (Kris Collins and Deanne Bellinger were unable to join this week).
Summary: The reconnection team met on March 17, 2021. Primary actions were to review the Commonwealth Standards for Houses of Worship, discuss key considerations as we reopen, and generate a questions list for further discussion and exploration.
- Opening prayer
- Key considerations:
- Reviewed previous reconnection work, now starting fresh.
- Kevin volunteered to record the minutes, the group asked Ed to chair for the time being
- Ed had previously sent UCC guidance, as well as Massachusetts Standards for Houses of Worship
- Short discussion on CDC guidance for cleaning, EPA list N, sanitizing soft surfaces
- Initial challenges identified: standards for choosing an open date, products to order, changes to be made, attendance limits and registration, occupancy standards/guidelines
- Do we need to follow the UCC guidelines? Kelly–we can choose to use or not.
- Do we need to research how other churches assessing/mitigating risk with handling hymnals and bibles in the pews?
- Questions generated:
- Need to know risk/impact of/on signing, group response, passing of peace?
- How do we continue to share with the virtual community? Service–huddle–short)
- Maybe not whole worship once we’re 100%?
- Do we try to stream? Implications on privacy and licensing?
- Would some members require special protection and how to protect?
- How should we communicate the safety guidelines to participants?
- How do we alert newcomers and visitors?
- Should we utilize online sign-up to monitor and limit attendees?
- Do we want to do temperature checks, who would do this?
- At what point would permitted occupancy make it feasible and advisable to open?
- Would we need one or two pews separation, how to accomplish?
- Should we promote ventilation and how?
- What kind of signage or queue guidance would be needed?
- Will we need separate exit and entrance?
- Would we need row by row exiting?
- Would we continue to use face coverings and what ages?
- Where would we seat those medically unable to wear masks?
- How are other churches handling this?
- Reviewed some examples
- What is the risk of physical collection and contributions?
- How do we promote/utilize no-touch?
- How might we handle communion, what’s the risk?
- Prepackaged seems impersonal for Oldtown?
- How to handle bulletin distribution?
- Maybe leave in pews in advance?
- Would we need to prevent communal gatherings and if so, how? Coffee house?
- How would we handle nursery and childcare?
- How would we handle bathroom cleaning?
- Who would do the general cleaning, self, or 3rd party, how often, with what?
- Should we worship outside in the near short term?
- How would we handle music, sound reinforcement, tent, chairs, electric?
- How would we handle accessibility, with outside worship?
- How/who would we assess the overall risk to the Oldtown community?
- What role would vaccination play in our decision?
- How might we want to handle fairs, yard sales, suppers, pet clinics?
- Would we need to sanitize money, provide hand sanitizer?
- How do we handle the logistics and labor of the yard sales?–Ed needs help
- How would we handle huddle, maybe outside?
Follow-ups for next meeting:
- Next meeting March 31st at 7:00PM
- The group decided maybe we put the pet clinics first and learn from this experience. Ed committed to work on assessing whether we might be able to re-start pet clinics and will check with Dr. Peter Granville to see if he is still available. Can we assemble a team of four accomplish the clinics (maybe a fourth person beyond Ed, Peter, and Jim)?
- Ed will check for maximum occupancy restrictions governing the building.