Recent weeks have been tough as we navigate a new normal amid the coronavirus pandemic. From a personal standpoint, many of us are practicing social distancing by staying at home, cancelling plans and avoiding crowded spaces. Professionally, some of us are working from home with an indefinite timeline of when we will be returning to our offices. During this time the Board of Directors has been meeting virtually to discuss what this new normal will translate into for the Marine Club. The Marine Club would like to thank all of our members. Thank you for your ongoing support and for your patience while we reviewed how to best move forward during these unprecedented times.
The Marine Club is an organization that relies on social gatherings to meet our mandate of fellowship and cooperation by bringing the Great Lakes community together. These gathering help to support various marine focused organizations through our Good Works Program. There are still many questions we are working to answer but we would like to share with you some decisions that have been made.
First, due to the inability to currently bring people together, we had to make the decision to cancel the following events:
- Annual Spring Luncheon
- Marine Club Spring Golf
- Hamilton Tiger Cats Football Game and Tailgate party
We have yet to make the decision as to whether the Marine Club Fall Golf event in September will also be cancelled. Over the next several weeks, we will gauge what may be feasible for this event and will provide an update by mid July. Additionally, any events that take place moving forward will be on a “pay as you go” basis.
The 82nd Annual Marine Club Dinner that is set for January 2021 has not been cancelled as of yet. There is significant amount of work involved in putting on this event; therefore, we will provide a definitive answer on whether we will be able to move forward will be provided in early September.
The Marine Club will continue to offer Corporate and Individual memberships this year. Corporate Memberships purchased in 2020 will be maintained for a (2) year period. We felt it was important to move forward with this year’s membership to enable us to continue to support our Good Works Program.
While there’s a lot of uncertainty right now, the Board felt there is still tremendous value to all of our members to continue to support where we can. Georgian College, for example supports future mariners that our industry desperately needs. We have identified key organizations that we felt should have top priority and will do our best to give to others if additional funds become available. We recognize that these organizations need our support now more than ever.
Our Corporate Membership package is vital in providing financial support to our Good Works Program, especially with many of our events being cancelled this year. We hope that honouring the membership for two years offers additional value. Further information about the Two-Year Membership Package will be sent in the very near future. However; if you would like more information or would like to register immediately, please contact:
Todd Jeffery
tjefferythemarineclub@gmaill.com
Amy Eberlee
Once again, we would like to thank our Membership for your continued support. We will be providing updates on a regular basis moving forward through our Beam emails, on our website and social media channels.
Keep well and stay safe.
The Marine Club
