Dear CAC Docents and Volunteers,
What an extraordinary time it is. We never thought we would experience anything like this in our lifetime. I think the more we get into it, the more surreal it gets….
So let me give you the latest update from where I sit. As you know, I am on two of the Mayor’s Industry Task Forces for reopening the city that are being run by Boston Consulting Group. On my Tourism/ Accommodation Task Force, I am focused on Outdoor Attractions and on my Arts and Culture Task Force, I am focused on Museums. Our stated objective for both is to create health and safety guidelines for guests and staff/volunteers, based on the Protecting Chicago phases to be approved by the Chicago Department of Public Health. There are 5 phases in the plan and we are specifically focused on Phase 3 Cautiously Reopen in preparation of a Mayoral announcement in the near future about reopening the city.
As an “outdoor attraction”, we are optimistic that we will be able to open both our walking tours and the architecture river cruise in Phase 3. Our goal is to introduce neighborhood walking tours in June – these are tours that do not start at the CAC. The suggested plan is for groups to be restricted to 6 people maximum and, where possible, from the same “social” network and social distancing a minimum of 6 ft. would be adhered to. Tickets would be purchased online in advance and both the docents and guests would wear masks. We would clearly indicate our policies online about social distancing, use of masks and informing guests that should they not feel well we will gladly exchange their tickets for another day.
Our priority is to keep our guests and our docents/volunteers safe and we will always follow the city and state guidelines. Staff and docents are working closely together to share information and to ensure all are aligned.
A similar approach is proposed for the Architecture River Cruise where visitors would be seated in their “social” network with the appropriate social distancing between other seated guests. CFL is working on the protocols for this based on industry best practice guidelines. Since the CAC itself is an indoor facility we expect that it will open later in the process.
As much as we are hoping to reopen soon, we are not exactly sure what the demand will be. To start, we will be focusing our marketing efforts on Chicago and then expand regionally. When the Mayor spoke at the Choose Chicago Annual Meeting yesterday, she emphasized the need to get Chicagoans to rediscover their city and the CAC plans to do that!
We will be launching a new/old initiative that I first learned about in my Docent training. The I WILL campaign which was first introduced after the Great Fire to inspire civic pride and the can-do spirit of Chicagoans to rebuild. We are calling it “I Will – We Can”. As individuals, we all have a role to play so that we, our city can come back and be healthy and strong again. So much of what we do at CAC inspires a sense of pride and ownership in our city. This is our part to help rebuild our city.
A link to a survey is here to determine your comfort in coming back as a docent or volunteer in June. Please fill it out, as we need to hear from you, so we know what kind of schedule we can be offering our guests. We understand that some of you may be uncomfortable with being part of Phase 3 and we most certainly respect that. If you can complete the survey by end of day Tuesday, May 26, it would be appreciated.
I thank you so much for all your support over the past few months and I look forward to being able to hear and see you in person sometime soon. Please stay safe and have a wonderful, if not somewhat subdued, Memorial Day weekend!
Best regards,
Lynn
Lynn Osmond
President and CEO