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The month of March, to me as a sports fanatic, has always been an invigorating time — where the winter season is slowly ending with spring and longer days begin. It is March Madness with the Women’s and Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament in full swing. Opening day for Major League Baseball starts today, April 1. Most importantly, your Chamber is quickly shifting gears from the past year with a spirited yet cautious move into the next nine months. As noted in our eNews last week, the Chamber’s annual gala dinner was a smashing success. That annual event set the stage for the Chamber board to plan out the year’s activities by reimagining how we operate and closely examining the value-add to our members, all while still addressing the health and safety of our community. In a normal year, we would have kicked off 2021 with our annual members’ meeting. Don’t worry, that meeting will take place when we can officially and safely gather and break bread together. In the meantime, the Chamber Board of Directors has moved forward. Sarah Latham, our new Board Chair, took the reins from Karl Rice, our outgoing Chair. Foremost, I can’t say enough how we deeply appreciated Karl’s leadership as Board Chair for the past two years. He led us through one of our most successful years in 2019, and held a steady hand in 2020 as COVID-19 rocked all of us. As many of you know, Sarah is the Vice Chancellor of Business Administrative Services at UCSC. As Chair, Sarah brings a powerful punch of positive energy, efficiency and tactical skills to the Board. Leading her first Board meeting last week, she walked us through our agenda in a progressive pace tackling financial, structural and event planning issues setting the tone for action, and asking our Board members to take our tagline with enthusiasm — Engage, Influence, Thrive. In her first order of business, she proposed a short survey to define what our Board thinks and to determine what, where and how we should operate and focus our attention. Be Focused, Be Engaging, Be Strategic and Be Forward thinking were the outcome of the survey. We are tasking ourselves to reimagine old ways of doing business by anticipating the future where in-person events, when possible, will be intermixed with online Zoom events. Creating a tone where there is space for fresh ideas. In a couple of words: Show Up and Speak Up. During the next couple of weeks, the Chamber staff and Board will roll out events that will populate our calendar as far in advance as possible. Some events may have placeholder dates until we have certainty that we can effectively hold each event as planned. Expect to see announcements of a green business event, a women’s leadership series, and webinars focusing on industry-specific topics. We end the first quarter of 2021 on a particularly high note considering all that we have gone through in the last year. The old saying — Beware the Ides of March — took on a new meaning in 2020. In Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar," a warning given to Caesar about March 15, the day on which he was assassinated, is a mysterious introduction. The saying is sometimes used as a warning in other situations: The way things have worked out for the team this month, they should have heeded the warning — beware the ides of March! April 1 is a day noted as April Fools’ Day where many unleash a creative side — in a hilarious but sometimes over the top attempt at making fun of someone else. This April 1 is a time to celebrate as our county moves from the red to orange tier under the Blueprint for a Better Economy. There will be less restriction and more freedom of movement as businesses like the Boardwalk reopen following tight health protocols. Here's what the state allows to reopen in the orange tier. A county can opt to be stricter than the state and not move forward with all openings. • Indoor capacity at places of worship increases to 50% • Indoor capacity at museums and zoos increases to 50% • Indoor capacity at movie theaters increases to 50% • Indoor capacity at gyms increases to 25% • Indoor capacity at restaurants increases to 50% • Card rooms can reopen indoors with 25% capacity • Family entertainment centers can reopen with 25% capacity You can find more specific COVID details in this eNews. One thing to keep foremost in your mind — we are not over the pandemic yet. Caution is the key, wearing a mask and social distancing is still the model of behavior that we should follow. As we swing into the spring months, there is a desire to re-engage in outdoor activities that are healthy and beneficial to you. In time, we will get more and more people vaccinated and a return to normalcy is just around the corner. For now, let’s continue to stay focused on each other’s health as your Chamber staff and board — reinvent our future.
The month of March, to me as a sports fanatic, has always been an invigorating time — where the winter season is slowly ending with spring and longer days begin. It is March Madness with the Women’s and Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament in full swing. Opening day for Major League Baseball starts today, April 1.
Most importantly, your Chamber is quickly shifting gears from the past year with a spirited yet cautious move into the next nine months. As noted in our eNews last week, the Chamber’s annual gala dinner was a smashing success. That annual event set the stage for the Chamber board to plan out the year’s activities by reimagining how we operate and closely examining the value-add to our members, all while still addressing the health and safety of our community. In a normal year, we would have kicked off 2021 with our annual members’ meeting. Don’t worry, that meeting will take place when we can officially and safely gather and break bread together. In the meantime, the Chamber Board of Directors has moved forward. Sarah Latham, our new Board Chair, took the reins from Karl Rice, our outgoing Chair. Foremost, I can’t say enough how we deeply appreciated Karl’s leadership as Board Chair for the past two years. He led us through one of our most successful years in 2019, and held a steady hand in 2020 as COVID-19 rocked all of us.
As many of you know, Sarah is the Vice Chancellor of Business Administrative Services at UCSC. As Chair, Sarah brings a powerful punch of positive energy, efficiency and tactical skills to the Board. Leading her first Board meeting last week, she walked us through our agenda in a progressive pace tackling financial, structural and event planning issues setting the tone for action, and asking our Board members to take our tagline with enthusiasm — Engage, Influence, Thrive. In her first order of business, she proposed a short survey to define what our Board thinks and to determine what, where and how we should operate and focus our attention. Be Focused, Be Engaging, Be Strategic and Be Forward thinking were the outcome of the survey.
We are tasking ourselves to reimagine old ways of doing business by anticipating the future where in-person events, when possible, will be intermixed with online Zoom events. Creating a tone where there is space for fresh ideas. In a couple of words: Show Up and Speak Up.
During the next couple of weeks, the Chamber staff and Board will roll out events that will populate our calendar as far in advance as possible. Some events may have placeholder dates until we have certainty that we can effectively hold each event as planned. Expect to see announcements of a green business event, a women’s leadership series, and webinars focusing on industry-specific topics.
We end the first quarter of 2021 on a particularly high note considering all that we have gone through in the last year. The old saying — Beware the Ides of March — took on a new meaning in 2020. In Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar," a warning given to Caesar about March 15, the day on which he was assassinated, is a mysterious introduction. The saying is sometimes used as a warning in other situations: The way things have worked out for the team this month, they should have heeded the warning — beware the ides of March!
April 1 is a day noted as April Fools’ Day where many unleash a creative side — in a hilarious but sometimes over the top attempt at making fun of someone else. This April 1 is a time to celebrate as our county moves from the red to orange tier under the Blueprint for a Better Economy. There will be less restriction and more freedom of movement as businesses like the Boardwalk reopen following tight health protocols. Here's what the state allows to reopen in the orange tier. A county can opt to be stricter than the state and not move forward with all openings. • Indoor capacity at places of worship increases to 50% • Indoor capacity at museums and zoos increases to 50% • Indoor capacity at movie theaters increases to 50% • Indoor capacity at gyms increases to 25% • Indoor capacity at restaurants increases to 50% • Card rooms can reopen indoors with 25% capacity • Family entertainment centers can reopen with 25% capacity You can find more specific COVID details in this eNews. One thing to keep foremost in your mind — we are not over the pandemic yet. Caution is the key, wearing a mask and social distancing is still the model of behavior that we should follow.
As we swing into the spring months, there is a desire to re-engage in outdoor activities that are healthy and beneficial to you. In time, we will get more and more people vaccinated and a return to normalcy is just around the corner. For now, let’s continue to stay focused on each other’s health as your Chamber staff and board — reinvent our future.