In the Fog with some Bright Spots

Your strategic plan is out the window, but there are some bright spots, like the flowers.  Turn your strategic plan into a more realistic bullet list with items you can work on.  Make a column for what you will do in the worst case scenario and somewhere in between. You may not be able to have your summer fundraiser, but you can identify what it would look like with a full reopening of the economy, a partial and a back to quarantine scenario.  If you have completion dates in your plan, the columns give you a way to put reality into your goals.  Now you have both an emergency plan document (that you have been putting off creating) and a new strategic plan. 

New and Old Ways to Conduct Business

We may not have gone through two epidemics like my friend in the picture. She turned 103 in April and was a baby when she caught the 1918 flu. She is safe now but she, like the rest of us, is feeling the disruptions to her life. So we cope.

1) Old ways. As you thrive or blunder in your use of technology, there still might be some old ways you can use. A text message doesn’t really work for most of our business, but a phone call just might. It's a way to work with your technologically less savvy colleagues as well.

2) The conference call. It’s a tad difficult to set up but it is an alternative to a video conference without the worry of Zoom bombing or setting up the right place in your home. You've seen lots of videos in which the light in back of the person is bright so that you can barely see them. No worries about seeing only the top of a person's head.

3) Some things must change. If you need a document with a third-party signature or notarized, check what your state says can be done via video or audio or with such tools as pdf encrypted signatures. A contractor or auditor may still be able to work with you if you can establish permissions to access your databases.

4) Something new and old. You may need to interview a candidate even as many must layoff. The panel interview is still the best way, and it isn’t any different in times of COVID except the candidate and your panel may be in many places using videoconferencing. You may have to hire after conducting a second panel via videoconferencing, without the candidate ever visiting. These are truly odd times.

5) Something old. Depending upon where you live, you have been through tornadoes, windstorms, snowstorms and power outages. You may have to rely on paper forms. You've seen some UI systems revert to paper.

Nonprofits in a time of the Covid Crisis

United Ways throughout the country are stepping up, changing the way they normally do business. United Way of Eastern Maine is convening nonprofit partners twice a week to discuss the needs and offer them support. They are supporting #nonprofits and individuals in need and have a list of their donations.

Some nonprofits are extending what they do. The Old Colony Y houses the homeless and will continue to do so. It has been selected by the Governor to provide emergency childcare to children of first responders, healthcare workers, and the other essential employees. As stated on the Covid Crisis Fund webpage, “[T]the work we did this past year is not nearly as important as the work we are doing today. And the work we do today won’t be nearly as important as the work we do tomorrow.”

East Bridgewater (MA) Hope, a support service for families of those with addictions, is working on converting to on-line services where once people dropped in. Knowing that we will someday be back to normal, the Board is still planning on having its own space.

Please support these groups and the ones you know best in your area.

http://ebhopes.net/ways-to-donate/

https://www.oldcolonyymca.org/covid-crisis-fund

https://www.unitedwayem.org/covid19/