New Operation Policy
The Government's Traffic Light System, formally known as the COVID-19 Protection Framework, is now live, and on December 1, 2021, the general committee agreed that:
As from the 3rd of December WBBC will operate under ‘My Vaccine Pass’, in accordance with the Governments COVID Protection Framework, and the use of vaccine passports at Worser Bay Boating Club (WBBC) will be mandatory.
This means that everyone who enters or uses any of the WBBC’s indoor areas (eg: the clubhouse, boat sheds and changing rooms) must have valid vaccine passport, meaning no unvaccinated person is allowed inside any WBBC controlled areas.
Our physical environments and how we use them make it challenging to separate and allow for different approaches, so in the interest of simplicity, we have included all the facilities we operate within.
The considerations to the decision included being able to go sailing while keeping the safety of our members at the forefront of our minds. The advice from national bodies and the alignment of other clubs with similar challenges have also played a part in our decision. In addition, the Committee factored in the long-term financial impact to the club. Our venue hire is an important income stream, and that operation sits within the hospitality industry and we need to comply with the requirements of the Government Framework under the Hospitality remit.
Furthermore, we are an 'education outside the classroom' centre, and fall under the Education remit of the Protection Framework, requiring all coaching personal (paid and volunteer) to be fully vaccinated when running our RŪNĀ Schools' Programmes.
Switching between operating under the My Vaccine Pass and not, is costly and unattainable.
The intent is to ensure we can sail and continue to access and use our facilities within the Protection Framework that has been set out by the Government.
We appreciate that these changes will bring a new way of how we interact with each other. And that change can be unsettling for some people.
Operationalizing the Protection Framework has its grey areas, and we have posed and will continue to provide questions to YNZ so that we can collectively learn and improve on how we apply these guidelines.
We hope that by setting the standard now, we can start to create more clarity of what we can do in the future.
Regattas and events will need to be managed differently, and we will be working closely with those teams to ensure we have consistency in the approach. Exactly what that will look like is yet to be determined and we will keep all members up to date as these details are provided to us from YNZ
The detail of the club policy, is below:
To help us administer this policy we are providing a mechanism for members to register the fact that they are vaccinated.
Step One: Fill in the registration form.
Step Two: Show your vaccine pass at the kitchen when open and your status will be verified in our database.
You will then be able to use the facilities and participate in activities such as club racing and coaching without needing to show your pass each time you participate.
Kindness needs to take rule here; we all have a personal standpoint and values, and I appreciate that we may not all agree. Please consider that we, the General Committee, have the club’s collective best interest at heart, we are human, and these are very trying times.
I would also like to be clear that the current approach is temporary – the entire Protection Framework is new, and we continue to see changes to the detail daily.
With that in mind, the General Committee will review the policy and protocols in the new year, should the information or landscape change.
Now, lets go sailing!
Mel