Suspension of Live Sing Arounds
After careful consideration, the Golden Link Sounding Board has voted to suspend live sing arounds until such time as conditions allow us to resume them. We did this for both safety and quality reasons.
As must always be the case in these pandemic times, our foremost concern is for the safety of our participants. As the weather changes, outdoor sing arounds are not practicable, and indoor sing arounds present considerable challenges. From a safety standpoint, the COVID-19 case rate in Monroe County has not gone down, even though it has done so in much of New York State. Putting people together in an enclosed space for 2 hours at a time, on a weekly basis, while singing, was not something we felt right in doing.
There are at lease two reasons for this. First, Golden Link has established a policy for our indoor events, which requires that each attendee show proof of vaccination and a photo ID. Each volunteer and audience member must also be masked all the time. We do this for concerts, and it requires several people to implement, and is not an easy task. This level of safety assurance is not feasible for sing arounds.
The second reason is that the venue has authorized use of their facility for indoor sing arounds on the condition that we allow no more than 30 attendees, and that all must remain fully masked, even while singing. Individuals and family groups must maintain a minimum of 6 feet social distancing.
These are reasonable rules from a safety standpoint, but they don’t work well with our sing around format. Many of our attendees sing and play softly. Some of the rest of us (including me) have hearing issues. Without being able to see the singers’ faces and hear them clearly, the experience is not an enjoyable one. For me personally, this was somewhat of a factor in the outdoor sing arounds, even without masks. I’m sure I’m not alone in this.
These are the reasons we have suspended the live sing arounds for the present time. We will continue to monitor the situation, and hope to resume live sing arounds as soon as conditions warrant doing so.
Tim Rybinski - Treasurer