A message to AIA Seattle members about COVID-19 coronavirus

Dear AIA Seattle Members,

As news of the coronavirus in Washington state leads to increasing action by both public health officials and private businesses, I wanted to share with you the steps AIA Seattle is taking to protect the health of our members and staff while continuing to offer the best member service we can. Thank you for your partnership and flexibility as we all navigate this health challenge together.

Encouraging the sick to stay home
Following the advice of public health officials, we ask that any member or employee experiencing flu-like symptoms stay home and recover.

Offering video access
For major education programs like our Project Management Series, we will be videotaping content and sharing it with individuals whose health concerns prevent them from attending in person. We will work with those individuals to secure CEUs for those who need to attend by video.

Accepting cancellations
If health concerns prevent you from attending an event for which you have already registered, AIA Seattle has extended our no-penalty cancellation policy for late cancellations.

Rescheduling meetings
If committees or other groups meeting in our space wish to reschedule or cancel, we ask that you contact staff so that we can include notification in our enews and online.

Assessing event and facilities standards
We are working with vendors, caterers, and our partners at the Center to enhance safety. At the Center, we are taking extra care to clean surfaces and provide hand-washing facilities. Our caterers take food safety very seriously, and have rigid standards for food prep and service. They ask in return that our guests do their part and wash hands prior to joining the buffet line.

Supporting local businesses
While the news about COVID-19 is concerning, we are also keenly aware that cancelling events has a negative impact on members, venues, and particularly the small local businesses we use to cater and support our events. We will consider cancelling events when it seems prudent, but guard against premature cancellations that may hurt the partners whose businesses depend on us.

We will continue to monitor the situation, and may evolve our response as circumstance requires. Thank you for partnering with us.

Sincerely,
Lisa Richmond
Executive Director
AIA Seattle + Design in Public