Posted by Joe P in Questions for the Candidates - COVID-19
This is another question for anybody who wants to answer.

By far the biggest event in real life around the entire world has been the COVID-19 global pandemic. Although the worst of it may be over in some parts of the world, in other parts it is still going on, and it could get worse with very little advance warning unless herd immunity is achieved (hopefully with a reliable vaccine) or the virus mutates and becomes less deadly.

The pandemic has obviously affected the club; at least one member has died (Liz Rahuba), I know some other members have lost their jobs or have had to adjust to working under less than ideal conditions, or have to deal with children in the home all the time instead of being in school, and I think many of us also know someone in our friends or family who may have gotten sick.

On the other hand, many people are spending a lot more time on the Internet, and that means we also have a lot of people who are in the club and doing things here now that they wouldn’t have been otherwise inclined to do. That’s a small thing in the grand scheme of everything that is happening in our lives, but it’s kind of a big deal for the club. The club has reacted to all of this in different ways as the situation developed. Sometimes those reactions were not entirely consistent. Other times, those reactions might have been based around the idea that this was a sort of short term emergency that would quickly resolve itself; now it seems like the pandemic is going to be a “new normal” that we have to adjust to for a while.

As of right now, there is no ticket that has said anything at all about the pandemic, yet the pandemic is actually having some pretty dramatic effects on the club in a very direct way that we’re not used to real life events doing. So, I’m just curious:

Is there anything you plan to do about the pandemic during the next term if you are elected President? If yes, why? If not, why not?

Joe

While I would love to solve the pandemic, that is likely out of the realm of responsibilities of the Executive of a small Star Trek role-playing club on the Internet. That’s what you meant, right?

More seriously, the pandemic has been an impactful part of our lives over the last few months and, unfortunately, it looks like it’s going to be for the foreseeable future. Our goal is to continue the attitude started this term from Steve and I. We have to be aware of both groups of people (those whose available time has increased as a result and those whose available time has decreased as a result) and make sure that they have ways to participate in the club that meets them where they are at now with the loving and supportive community that we are.

Some members may need to step back from various roles for now and that is okay! We’ll make sure that there is room for them to take those roles when they can come back and give them the time and the attention that they require, while offering less involved avenues of participation in the club.

Some members may be ready to post multiple times per day and produce 1,500 posts on a ship in one month and that is okay! We’ll make sure that they find the right matches to ensure that there are other people who have a similar activity level and can offer that creative outlet.

Some members are posting with a child literally sitting on their lap and that means a lot more short posts, but they’re still posting, and that is okay! We’ll bear with them during this time of creative lapse and look forward to their return to full creative writing in a few months when the stress starts to dissipate.

For me, the compassion and support that other members of the club have offered has been key to surviving these stressful times. We want to make sure that everyone has access to our amazing community and a place to role-play, whether their creativity is at an all-time high or they are stumbling over participating in more than a main sim.

• Sarah