Greetings once again to the membership:

   

At our last get-together, we promised the membership that we would keep you informed as to the status of in-person meetings. Here is the latest information.

During our last Chapter meeting in November, the membership voted to cancel the January meeting citing past poor attendance and poor weather as the deciding factors.

Shortly after this the executive decided, at the urging of the Local 27 executive, to cancel the Christmas Luncheon due to the Covid-19 surge. A subsequent vote was held and carried by the retirees’ executive to extend this cancellation to the February meeting as well.

The membership was informed of these cancellations through email and phone calls in early December. We are sending this email out to confirm to the membership that the February meeting remains canceled.

 
 

Now for the Good news!

The executive has talked at length about future meetings and decided to go ahead with a March meeting. We hope going forward, to be able to continue with meetings on the regular schedule.

That having been said, we will be putting some precautions in place to try to ensure everyone’s safety.

• We will be asking the membership to monitor their own health and NOT attend meetings if they feel ill.

• We will ask members with compromised health to seriously consider if they feel the risk of Covid justifies their attendance.

• We will be making available a small supply of N95 masks for those members who wish to attend but who may feel their health places them at higher-than-normal risk or who have fear of infecting a spouse or grandchildren.

• We will continue to monitor and observe suggestions from the Middlesex-London Health Unit and our Local 27 executive.

   

  Details of March meeting

Time: Wednesday, March 1st, 10 a.m.

Lunch: Sandwich & Sub Platters and potato chips.

PLEASE NOTE: if you think you will be staying for lunch, please let Rick or Peter know so we have an idea of how much food will be needed.

Rick: richard.eagar@gmail.com or 519-851-0529

Peter: pmkearney88@gmail.com or 519-659-9473

Speaker: Steve Holmes from the Huff & Puff organization.

Steve will give us a presentation about the activities available through their non-profit organization and suggest some mild exercises for members who might be looking for physical activities to help in their retirement.

 

In Closing:

These have been a trying last few years, we have all had to adjust to an entirely new reality with the onset of Covid 19 in early 2020.

The changes in our day-to-day lives have been a sobering experience for us all. We have been forced into the realization of how fragile our healthcare and support systems are, and how easily they can be overwhelmed and how our economic system can be equally affected.

We will have to accept that Covid-19 is likely going to be with us permanently. We have always had to adjust our lives around cold and flu seasons. Now we are going to have to add Covid-19 to that list.

Cold and flu have always been more prevalent in the fall and winter mainly because of how much more time people spend indoors, this is the same ideal conditions for the spread of Covid-19.

Our chapter will, we hope, adjust to this new reality and continue on. Unions have always been about the collective good, it will take a collective effort from us all to keep the less hardy of our group safe.

The executive feels we are all up to the challenge- let’s make a go of it!

   

We will send out another reminder towards the end of February

Please remember to RSVP your intention to attend the meeting and/or stay for lunch.

   

We’ve all heard the ancient curse, “May you live in interesting times.”

Well, we’ve certainly had a few interesting years, here's hoping for a less interesting 2023!

 
 

Hope to see you all in March!

Till then, stay safe

 

Your Executive