To: All Rotary and Rotaract Club Presidents, Presidents’ Elect, Club Secretaries
CC:  D7080 Council, D7080 Committee Chairs, D7080 Assistant
 
March 16th, 2020
 
The COVID-19 situation is evolving hourly.  Today, government and medical advisors are asking all Canadians to take stronger measures to contain the spread of the virus.  We've been advised that we can flatten the curve of coronavirus by taking further disciplined steps to protect ourselves, our families and our communities by not only being more mindful of hand hygiene, but also through social distancing and voluntary isolation.  
 
We are therefore asking all clubs to suspend all in-person meetings and events for at least 3 weeks from today, or until further notice.  It’s time to adopt alternative meeting options that will allow us to stay connected until this virus situation abates.   
 
Darren Sweeney and Tom Mennill are currently obtaining annual Zoom licences for individual clusters that can be shared by clubs within each cluster.  A reduced annual subscription will also be available to clubs who wish to purchase their own club subscription.  The cost will be $135 per licence per year. However, the registration and approval process for this discounted rate will take another 7-10 days.  In the meantime, we encourage everyone to sign up for a free Zoom account at https://zoom.us/.  This will allow larger groups of up to 100 people to connect via Zoom for up 40 minutes.  The time limit does not apply to smaller groups of 1 – 2 people. The annual licence will not have a time restriction and will allow for groups of up to 500.
 
We will provide you with information on how your cluster can administer the Zoom subscription and/or purchase you club's own subscription when we receive the licences. 
 
Please do not cancel meetings; rather replace them with Zoom meetings.  Encourage past members, friends and alumni to attend electronically.  Provide updates to members on how your club and cluster are working together to support our communities and those who need our help during this challenging time.  Changing our meeting format is not our biggest risk - our biggest risk is not taking action.
 
Stay well and stay tuned for more information.
 
Lesley, Mike, Rudy and Sandhya