in person in covid

Before discussing reopening with ministry participants:

1. Meet with your staff contact. Start the conversation with your staff contact to explore the timeline for reopening, sanitizing & safety protocols, tech needs and communication plans.

If your group would like to meet online, your staff contact can also
help you get started with this.

2. Talk with the ministry team. Talk with your current ministry volunteers about how they feel comfortable being involved at this point.  If most of the team is not ready to meet in person yet then it's a good sign that you’ll need to give it a little more time.         
3. Plan with your ministry team. Meet with your ministry team to coordinate what you need to have in place for a safe reopening. See the Prep for Reopening tab for planning tools.
4. Gage participant interest. If you have enough team that is comfortable with in person gatherings & the ministry team has a reopening plan in place, then it’s time to reach out to current participants to gage their interest.

Plan with your ministry team. 

• All food needs to be professionally & individually pre-packaged.
• People sign a waiver the first time they come back in person (1 time only).
• How to support social distancing
• Plan for room set up & sanitizing
• No nursery available
• Both online & in person options needed?  

Contact Debra via the Room & Resource Request on the Ministry Toolbox
to reserve a meeting space. 

• Keep in mind social distancing requirements when choosing a space. You may need to shift to a larger meeting room to accommodate social distancing. 
• Check out covid room capacities for meeting spaces.

Get the word out. 

• Update parish website.
• Contact Val, Parish Communications Coordinator, to get the word out in the bulletin and social media.
• Email your group.

• Set up room to support social distancing.
• Coordinate any tech supplies & support needed.
• All participants are required to wear masks & maintain social distancing.
• Encourage people to use hand sanitizer when they enter the building.
• Have people sign a waiver the first time they come back in person (1 time only).
• Any food offered needs to be professionally, individually pre-packaged  (bottled water, personal snack packs, etc).
• Sanitize the meeting space after your gathering: wipe down chairs, tables, commonly touched places like door handles & light switches.