Dear Parents & Guardians: 
We wanted to reach out to you to provide you another update regarding the efforts of the Board of Directors of the Crystal Lake Rowing Club to monitor reports on Covid-19 and follow guidance from the Crystal Lake Park District (we are an affiliate organization), the McHenry County Department of Health, U.S. Rowing,  the Illinois Department of Health and federal health authorities. 
 
Since we last sent you a communication, we have updates within rowing and the state of Illinois:
·        Illinois has extended a state-wide shelter-in-place order through April 30, with continued communication from the Governor that he will follow the guidance from health experts about whether to extend that order;
·        Illinois has announced school will be delivered via remote learning thorugh the end of the school year;
·        Our governing organization, U.S. Rowing, has cancelled all spring regatta events and has expressed caution about the summer;
·        The number of cases in our county and surrounding counties has continued to rise.
 
With all of that in mind, the Board met and looked at some hard realities:
 
·        We want to continue to offer support to our rowing community while meeting our fiscal responsibility to keep the Club in decent shape.
·        Our families and potential future families are looking at uncertain household financial situations.
·        Like many Clubs, we have had to take a hard look at our finances.  Being unable to offer a traditional rowing season has impacted the Club’s finances.  

By way of explanation, in order to keep our sport affordable and accessible (we charge the lowest rowing club fees in the area and pass savings we achieve to our members) we count on our seasonal revenues and fundraising to be able to keep club dues low. 

However, we also continue to have expenses that we must accrue for, such as support for tax preparation, required insurance, websites, U.S. Rowing dues, rental space fees, etc.  We are actively negotiating to reduce these or request assistance, but that process is not yet complete and some relief from those expenses may not be possible, while others have proactively assisted us by providing relief.

·        At present we are currently looking at accessing our reserve funds to continue to function.
·        Looking ahead, our opportunities to fundraise may not be available if summer and fall events are postponed or cancelled.  We are scheduling “learn-to-row” opportunities for late summer, but we do not yet know if we can conduct those.
 
We wanted to update you on our decision process.  To help you with your planning:
·        Our current suspension of in-person practices is extended through April 30, because of the statewide shelter-in-place order.  It will be automatically extended to any future modifications of the date specified in the order.
·        We are putting in a “hard pause” to Spring Season.  We are trying to support our rowers and coaches by keeping them engaged with daily workouts posted on TeamApp by 5 pm for the following day.  We are asking our families to respect the fact that our coaches are doing this around changed work schedules that include travel and to encourage your rower to be flexible if posting of workouts are delayed.
·        Our intention is to resume the season as soon as we can safely do so-we know our rowers miss their time on the water!.  At present, we do not know when that will be-please continue to look to Team App for updates and feel free to reach out to the Board with questions.
·        Our social committee has been brainstorming for fun things for the team to do virtually (stay tuned!) and has posted a fun t-shirt to order on the TeamApp for your rower
·        We are not asking any of our families to pay for Spring season.  If you wish to support the club on a voluntary basis, you can do so by donating directly to the club at https://www.joinourcrew.org/donation
·        Please also continue to support the club (and encourage your friends and family to do so)  on Amazon smile-information on that is in the “News” section on TeamApp or at the following link https://crystallakerowingclub.teamapp.com/articles/4097948-holiday-season-amazon-smile
 
 
As a reminder, should your rower or family member be subject to a self-quarantine, running a fever or sick as advised by your doctor, please inform the coaches so that we can respond.   We will need everyone’s cooperation in sharing information.
 
We will continue to monitor information available and guidance provided by federal, state, local and affiliate partners and keep you informed via TeamApp.
We remain committed to working together to prevent the spread of this virus in our homes, schools and community. For additional information about the coronavirus (COVID-19), please see the resources below. 
 Coronavirus (COVID-19) resources:
 
·        Federal:   Centers for Disease Control Website: COVID-19 information
·        State:  Illinois Coronavirus Site:  https://coronavirus.illinois.gov/s/ which also has links for the Governor’s daily coronavirus briefing
·        Department of Public Health:  http://www.dph.illinois.gov/topics-services/diseases-and-conditions/diseases-a-z-list/coronavirus
·        McHenry County:  McHenry County Health Department COVID-19 (Novel Coronavirus) | McHenry County, IL9

Sincerely,
Crystal Lake Rowing Club Board