Update from Outdoor UW Director - Joe Webb

Covid-19 Update from Joe Webb, Director of Outdoor UW

Dear Member of Wisconsin Hoofers,

We hope that you are all staying healthy during these difficult times. As a member of a community who is used to being social in the outdoors, these times have been challenging as many of our outlets for stress relief, relaxation, community, and leisure are impacted with the order to stay at home and social distance.

We are still here for you, monitoring the ever-changing situation closely, and revising our ability to plan and program almost weekly. As of April 17th, we want to share with you some updates on what we are working on, what we know, and what we don't know.

Wisconsin Hoofers (current business, projects, and discussions)

• Club Elections and Transition Preparation
• Hoofer Awards Planning and Organization
• Club Budget Approvals (and Revisions)
• Constitution and Bylaw Revisions and Approvals
• General questions and emails sent to outdooruw@union.wisc.edu and phone calls/voicemails to the general line are being answered to consistently throughout the week

• Trip Planning Project
• Member Registration Project
• COVID-19 Response Discussions (virtual programming, memberships, and more)
• Google Email/Folder Organization and Transition Project
• Club Leader Transition Guides and Turnover
• Hoofer Leader On-boarding Module Development
• Rec Hub Enhancements and Updates

What We Know

• At this time, non-essential in-person campus events and activities have been postponed through June 30, 2020. This means that Hoofer programming will also be postponed until then. More info here.
• Youth programming has been cancelled for the summer. This primarily affects the Sailing Club Youth Sailing Program.

What We Don't Know (related to Covid-19 impact on Hoofers)

We do not know when we can resume programming. At this time, campus has projected a date of after June 30th, but that is subject to change. Additionally, there would be some needed time to prepare facilities, equipment, and staff upon the time we might return to "normal" operations. As soon as we have more information from the University, we will provide an update.

**Note: Some of you may have received or heard of a message from the provost related to summer programming. That particular email was directed toward youth programming.

Resources

• Memorial Union and Union South are currently closed, but the Wisconsin Union is still offering support, including virtual events and pick-up dining services. Please visit https://union.wisc.edu/about/here-for-you/ for more information.
• Association of Outdoor Recreation and Education (AORE), one of our national associations, has provided a great library of resources (educational videos, tips, etc.). You can find those here: https://aore.org/coronavirus.php
• Dane County Parks information and updates related to COVID-19 are available here: https://www.danecountyparks.com/
• Wisconsin State Parks information and updates are available here:https://dnr.wi.gov/topic/parks/

If you have questions or concerns, I encourage you to reach out to your club president or club executive board or email your questions to outdooruw@union.wisc.edu.

To contact our Commodore, Charlie Kutschenreuter, please email him at commodore@hoofersailing.org