And then it was the final week of the University/School holidays …
I hope that this morning finds everyone well rested from the weekend and thinking to the second half of the year ahead of us. I don’t have to labour the point that we have all experienced drastic change to our regular routines over the past few months. While we are still a long way from our pre-COVID habits, the announcement by the State government last week moving us to Stage 3 of the ease in restrictions is both a very welcome development, and presents ongoing challenges.
The biggest issue, of course, is our safe return to face-to-face classes. In aid of that, I have been drafting our Club’s COVID Safe blueprint, which covers all disciplines. Once that has been finalised, we will be making a copy available on the Club’s website, as we need for all Club members to be part of the team that allows us to get back into the dojo.
First some big announcements. We are now scheduled to make a return to face-to-face classes from the week of 20 July. We still need to confirm days and times, as there will have to be some inevitable changes to accommodate our requirements for maintaining a safe training environment in the face of the ongoing pandemic. As the Victorian experience illustrates, things can change very rapidly in the current environment, and we need to keep on top of this.
The second even bigger announcement is that the Club is set for a return to the USQ Toowoomba campus. After negotiating with Jenny Rix, the new CEO of the Student Guild, we look set to be able to run all of our pre-COVID classes at the Clive Berghofer Recreation Centre (CBRC), on Baker Street. The last time the Club was training in any capacity on campus was the last Kendo class we held in 2016, and for the bulk of the Club’s classes it was 2011. Coming back to campus significantly increases our ability to fulfil one of our primary charter items of servicing the University community, and especially disciplines like Kendo and Judo that feed into the Division 1 Australian University Games.
I want to thank Jenny for the opportunity to return to campus, and for her obvious vision and enthusiasm for the renewal of the Student Guild’s relationship with the University community. We are still finalising some of the necessary planning for the start of classes, and in next week’s Bulletin I hope to be able to provide full details of what this will mean for both instructors and students at the Club.
So this is definitely a case of watch this space closely. For me, I am probably equal parts excited and nervous with all of the change ahead. We are certainly getting close …