Fall 2021 Update

Hi Everyone,

The Board of Directors met on July 24, 2021 to firm up our plans for the remainder of the year. Per usual during the pandemic, the plans are subject to change depending on evolving guidance and restrictions from the CDC, Commonwealth of Virginia, and Fairfax County. Here are the highlights:

August Monthly Meeting: This will hopefully be our last virtual monthly meeting. It is tomorrow, Saturday, August 7, 2021 from 1 - 2:30 pm. Particulars to go out shortly.

September Monthly Meeting: We will hold our first in-person monthly meeting at Green Acres Community Center since March 2020 on Saturday, September 4, 2021. The meeting will start at 1:00 pm. We will have an expanded lightning talk by Jacob Waters entitled "Shrimp Keeping: Down the rabbit hole." Anticipating that there will be a larger than normal demand for the mini-auction and to ease the club back into normal operations, we will not have a regular feature presentation with a guest speaker. All the normal mini-auction rules will apply with the exception that we will impose a limit of 200 items total. Sellers, please be considerate of others as you list your items in My Group Auctions so that everyone can have the opportunity to sell.

Fall All-Day Auction: We will hold the Fall All-Day Auction on Sunday (note that All-Day Auctions fall on Sundays, not Saturdays!), October 3, 2021. To ease back into operations and reduce crowding, there will be no Tag Sale. Only livestock and live plants will be auctioned, no equipment or dry goods, and there will be no raffle. The total number of auction items will be limited to 500. Registration will start at 11 am and the auction at 12 pm with a hard stop at 5 pm. All-Day Auctions are complicated affairs to organize and run, and we are sorely out of practice. Hopefully these modifications will help us have a successful auction.

November Monthly Meeting: We will have a regular feature presentation and hold our Annual Elections.

December Holiday Party & Potluck Dinner: This will be our usual holiday party with a potluck dinner, no presentation, and a regular mini-auction.

Green Acres Occupancy Restrictions: Green Acres has been limiting occupancy to maintain 6' distance between occupants. We will monitor occupancy limits in order to comply with them. This should not affect our regular monthly meetings (typical attendance is well below the limits for the cafeteria) but could impact the All-Day Auction.

Masking Update: Fairfax County now requires masks at all county facilities. There are no COVID-specific occupancy limits at this time.

What's Not OK: If you feel ill, or if you know you've been exposed to COVID-19 within the last 14 days, you should not come to the meeting or auction. We'll catch you at the next one.

That's it for now. Looking forward to seeing everyone on Zoom tomorrow and in-person in September.

Patchin