Reopening plans: All-Member meeting Thursday, June 11, 7pm
A LETTER TO OUR MEMBERS
We hope you that you have been staying safe during these times! As CCX Create plans to reopen, we want to continue to keep you safe with the measures we are putting in place. We’ll be presenting details about our reopening at:
ALL-MEMBER MEETING
Thursday, June 11, 2020
7pm – 8:30pm
via Zoom
Topic: Reopening CCX Create
We invite you to join us, but if you are unable to attend, we will be posting the video to our YouTube channel and Facebook page. It is our hope that you’ll be able to take a look at these plans prior to the meeting so that you can come prepared with your questions and ideas.
PHASE 1 (Now through Monday, June 29)
All CCX Create staff will return to the building to prepare for your return on June 30. We have a lot of work to do — sanitizing, setting up work spaces and protocols, etc. There are a lot of details to be ironed out!
PHASE 2 (Tuesday, June 30 – Monday, August 3)
What will it look like returning to the studio on Tuesday, June 30? Know that it will be very different, but that we are doing our best to keep you, your guests, and us, well! You can do your part by not coming to the building if you are sick—if you have a reservation, please cancel it, stay home and take care of yourself.
Before COVID-19, we loved that you could just drop in, but now we’re asking you to please plan ahead and make your reservations by phone, email or online before coming to the studio. We will be keeping the doors locked and only allowing in those who have reservations. Ring video doorbells have been installed so please wait for staff to come and let you in. As you’re waiting, you can put on your mask or face shield, as we will be requiring those.
When you enter the lobby, there will be a check-in area where you can apply hand sanitizer and sign in, answering some health questions. (If you start to not feel well while you are at the studio, please notify staff and go home.) When you are done checking in, you can make your way to the room you have reserved, respecting social distancing rules. We had a lot of socializing before COVID-19; for now, we’re going to ask you to refrain from hanging out—come do what you do and have fun while you’re doing it, but don’t stick around to visit.
As we said, we will only be honoring existing reservations at this time, although there will be some changes there, too. We’ve divided it up by area if you want to skip to the section that details the equipment you use . . . although we recommend reading each of the sections!
STUDIO RESERVATIONS
Because staff will be getting acclimated to new procedures, we are limiting studio reservations to what is already in the books, and even those will need to be modified. We will be contacting all of you who are “regulars” to revise your current schedule. Many of you have two-hour time slots twice a month. What we would like to do, temporarily, is switch to a four-hour time slot once a month. This would minimize your time at the studio and still allow you to record as many, if not more, shows. We will be making Fridays 1pm-5pm available for studio reservations in order to accommodate everyone.
To give staff time to clean between productions, we will be having members alternate studios. If the person before you is recording in Studio A, you will record in Studio B, and vice versa. We will have set pieces in the studio that you can use. At this point, we do not want anyone going back to set storage and selecting their own pieces.
We are still talking through audio options. One option is to have microphones pre-set in the space so that you don’t have to touch or disinfect lavaliere or wireless mics. Now, we’re thinking we may have enough lavaliere mics to cycle through with the limited numbers of people coming in to the studio, our second option. We would make the handoff process as contact-less as possible, and used mics would go into “quarantine” for 72 hours before being disinfected and introduced back into inventory.
We will be allowing up to two crew people in the control room (one at the switcher console and one at the audio console), and two in the studio (one host and one guest), and no more. If you have a larger crew or production, we will talk about different scenarios available to you when we call. We will require behind-the-scenes crew to keep on their masks, while those in front of the camera may remove their masks immediately before recording. Please keep social distancing in mind.
A note for those of you who don’t have existing reservations: if all goes well, we think you’ll be able to start making reservations for August sometime mid-July. In the meantime, if you need to reach Create staff, please use email (create@ccxmedia.org) or phone (763.278.4330).
EDIT RESERVATIONS
Limited edit reservations will be able to be made, and they will be handled much the same as studio reservations. We will be switching, temporarily, to four-hour time slots, alternating between edit suites. If editors were in Edit 2 and 3, the next editors would use Edit 4 and 5, and so on. We will only be allowing two editors in the building at a time. You will be able to remove your mask once you get in the room and close the door. Create staff will not be entering the room to assist with your questions—we are in the process of setting up a way for us to remote in to your edit computer to help. You are welcome to bring in your own USB keyboard and mouse.
PORTABLE EQUIPMENT RESERVATIONS
You will be able to check out portable equipment for a longer timeframe beyond our standard 48-hour checkout, if desired. We will be implementing contact-less curbside checkout and return. When you come to pick up gear, please remain in your car, but notify us that you have arrived. We will bring out the gear and place it in the trunk of your car. We may need to have you sign a form, but we are currently working on a way we can utilize e-signatures.
Upon return, we will have you remove the gear from your car and place it in a bin on a cart. We will then place the gear “in quarantine” for 72 hours before we attempt to disinfect it and return it to service (this is when we will check-in the gear). Obviously, less equipment will be available at any given point in time to allow for this quarantine.
WHAT ABOUT THE COMPUTER ROOM, RESTROOMS AND BREAK ROOM?
The computer room: At this point, we’re going to be more lax about how you use the edit room computers. Any show-related tasks, like uploading or checking email, that you would have done in the computer room, you can do from the edit room. We would ask that you let staff do any downloads that you need.
Restrooms: Yes, you can use the restroom! What with social distancing guidelines, we ask that only one person at a time use the facilities. To enter the restrooms, you now only have to push to open, and to exit, you can use the newly installed handle or step-n-pull. Since we left the building, automated hand soap dispensers, water faucets, and paper towel dispensers have been installed.
Break room: While we aren’t encouraging hanging out, we do still have a break room if you need to take a break. Tables have been spaced 6 feet apart and have one chair at each table. Please do not move the furniture. You’ll have to visit from afar!
PHASE 3 (Tuesday, August 4, possible start date — stay tuned)
We haven’t put as much thought into this phase because we’re not sure what the future holds. We will continue to follow the guidelines set out by federal and state authorities. We are hopeful that we can continue to phase in larger productions (more than four people but maybe not a full production with band, crew and dancers) and increased numbers of editors.
PHASE 4 (dates to be determined)
At some point, we would like to go back to “normal” (large productions, in-person classes, etc.) but we’re not sure when that will be. Maybe this new normal will be better than the old one! You can let us know what you think as we progress through the different phases.
As we work through the details, we will continue to keep you informed. The All-Member Meeting will be our first real opportunity to present you with solid information about CCX Create reopening and you returning to the studio. The whole point of all these measures is to keep you safe and to give Create staff time to clean and disinfect equipment in between members. We want to see you producing programming at CCX Create for as long as you want and are able!
CCX Create Staff
create@ccxmedia.org
763.278.4330