Coronavirus Safety Procedures
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Coronavirus Safety Procedures Helping our Clients make wise decisions for their events in the global pandemic. 1 TABLE OF We've got a lot to cover & want to make it easy for you to navigate to the most relevant CONTENTS information about your event. our posture 3 scale of risk 4 what we know 5 policies, full service floral and event styling 8 policies, carry-out 11 policies, planning & coordination 12 policies, studio-store 17 additional resources 18 TWM pandemic policies OUR We've been watching the pandemic and its effects on weddings and events closely. We POSTURE think there will be long-term effects. The Wild Mother has collected relevant information about hosting events during the global COVID-19 pandemic. We’ve provided guidelines or recommendations put in place by both The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and our Oklahoma State leadership. We believe following these guidelines will help avoid community spread of the virus between family and friends and is the most responsible approach to hosting events during this time. Our team has been disheartened by stories of family members gathering for birthday parties or friends gathering for weddings resulting in a large numbers of those in attendance falling ill or dying at the hands of Coronavirus. We have collected more news stories at the end of this document for your education. The Wild Mother believes it is not caring for event hosts or planners to leave guests anticipating a change in plans for an extended time. And, it is worse to make guests choose between celebrating an event & staying safe. Instead, we believe Clients and event hosts should provide their guests with clear and consistent channels for engaging and celebrating their event that does not leave the guests with the sense that they are between a rock and a hard place. As such, our team has updated our policies and procedures in order to keep guests safe while keeping our team safe. We are painfully aware that making a difficult decision regarding your event may cause your expectations to shift. We empathize with you and commiserate as we are also experiencing shifts in our usual rhythms. All of these suggestions are based on our combined 15 years of experience in this industry. We are committed to producing beautiful and intentional weddings and events that do not cause guests to choose between celebrating with their loved ones and their safety. We believe there are creative ways to consider the safety of all in attendance, while maintaining a sense of beauty and poetry throughout an event. We are up for the task and must ask that each Client is willing to follow these procedures. 3 SCALE OF July 2020, The Center for Disease Control issued important information and suggestions about RISK hosting events during the pandemic. Determine Your Event's Risk of Spreading COVID-19. Unfortunately, neither the CDC nor the State of Oklahoma provides concrete guidelines about a safe guest count at an event. Yet, the CDC does provide the following suggestions, which we have interpreted (underlined), using our combined 15 years of experience in events & our understanding of COVID-19. lowest risk Virtual-only activities, events, and gatherings. more risk (30 guests or less): Smaller outdoor and in-person gatherings in which individuals from different households remain spaced at least 6 feet apart, wear cloth face coverings, do not share objects, and come from the same local area (e.g., community, town, city, or county). higher risk (31-60 guests): Medium-sized in-person gatherings that are adapted to allow individuals to remain spaced at least 6 feet apart and with attendees coming from outside the local area. highest risk (60 or more guests): Large in-person gatherings where it is difficult for individuals to remain spaced at least 6 feet apart and attendees travel from outside the local area. TWM pandemic policies WHAT WE New information about the global pandemic is available daily and reinforces our team's KNOW caution. expert guidance & how TWM responds: Allow us to share some of our recent findings about the current state of hosting events in the pandemic and how we respond. expert guidance As of July 7, 2020, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention clearly communi- cates “The more people an individual interacts with at a gathering and the longer that interaction lasts, the higher the potential risk of becoming infected with COVID-19 and COVID-19 spreading.” The CDC has outlined the level of risk for certain types of events, saying the highest risk of spread is within the context of “large in-person gatherings where it is difficult for individuals to remain spaced at least 6 feet apart and attendees travel from outside the local area.” TWM response This definition of “highest risk” events is reminiscent of the large-scale weddings and events that The Wild Mother typically services, where it is not uncommon for an event to host 75+ guests, excluding the additional staff from vendor teams, for 3-8 hours. To maintain the safety of all guests, The Wild Mother recommends our Clients (brides & grooms, event hosts, and studio-store customers) join with the CDC’s recommendations for mitigating community spread of the virus by limiting guest count of events and limiting the time guests are present at an event. Taking this approach allows guests to feel safe and comfortable as they celebrate with you. Specific guidelines for mitigating spread are listed in our Procedures below. *The Wild Mother maintains the right to update procedures as the details of COVID-19, in the United States and globally, continues to develop day-by-day. Any updates will be communicated as promptly as possible. 5 expert guidance The Oklahoma State Health Department warns “Current data indicates the risk of death for those contracting COVID-19 notably increases for individuals above the age of 60 or for individuals with autoimmune conditions.” TWM response Many weddings and large events involve guests over the age of 60 (parents and grandparents of the bride and groom, elderly family members, etc.) Some of these precious people may be immunocompromised, making attendance a risk to their health. Oklahoma continues to maintain a recommendation for persons over 65 years old to follow the “Safer-at-Home” and social distancing policies. For weddings, our team prioritizes the safe attendance of all immediate family members, especially elderly family members (such as parents and grandparents), above the attendance of extended family and young friends. Studies show that young people (under 30 years old) are more reckless about social distancing and wearing masks. These young people are likely to carry the virus asymptomatically and may spread the virus to older, higher risk, populations. We believe invitations to events should be exclusive to the most essential and responsible members of your guest list. To us, family is most essential, and those who have upheld social distancing for at least 14 days without symptoms are most responsible. expert guidance Per Oklahoma’s “Open Up and Recover Safely” three phase guide, Oklahoma’s Governor, Kevin Stitt recommends the following (related to events and gatherings): “Citizens should minimize time spent in crowded environments and continue following CDC guidelines regarding social distancing,” and “If you are over 65 or part of a vulnerable population, continue following safer-at-home policies.” TWM pandemic policies TWM response In general, The Wild Mother encourages its Clients to limit the number of guests in attendance of weddings or events to under 10 guests or households (groups who have been quarantined together). These guests should always wear a mask and maintain a safe social distance of at least 6 ft. As such, we feel the best approach to events during this pandemic is either to postpone or downsize significantly using the scale of risk above. *Note: This choice is solely left to the Client’s discretion. We understand the difficulty of rearranging expectations, but we are confident that small weddings / micro-weddings can be expertly designed and executed. However, if a Client does not wish to follow the CDC and State recommendations, our team may be forced to terminate any existing contract with the Client without refund to the Client. 7 TWM Based on the above recommendations and your contract, our team will take the following POLICIES approaches to each service we provide. full service floral & Event Styling added safety measures • No Contact Installation: The Wild Mother requires the event’s day-of timeline to reflect at least 4 hours of uninterrupted installation time for the TWM team. At this time, no other vendors, third parties, guests, or other persons should be within 50 ft of our team. • All structures (arbors, tables, table cloths, or otherwise) that are required for The Wild Mother to install its designs must be present and set up upon TWM’s arrival. • TWM rentals: To limit contact with Clients, The Wild Mother will not loan or rent any items to Clients that must be returned to our studio or retrieved by our team. All structures, vases, bud-vases, or packaging The Wild Mother uses to install an event is the property of the Client upon receipt. Depending on cost, some items may be reflected on your invoice. • Hygiene & Disinfection: Any venue (including private residences) must practice proper hygiene and disinfecting, having cleaned and disinfected all event spaces at least once per day. Our team will wash or sanitize hands periodically throughout installation. • Masks: Our team will arrive with masks and any coordinator or planner who our team may be required to speak with must also wear a mask and maintain a safe social distance while interacting with our team.