From the President

Dear members,
We are all entering a difficult time due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The immediate consequences for many of us include loss of income, health concerns, and worries about vulnerable people in our lives. Longer term consequences are a huge unknown at this point, which is very stressful. The bonds we have created in our community are no small thing at this time.

There are already many examples of generosity and support flooding the fight community. If you need help or want to offer it, please continue to communicate on our various social media. Child care, income resources and mental health access are examples of areas we will need to
help each other with. If you know of someone who may need help who doesn’t have a social media presence, please seek them out.

In terms of fight training and creation, we can still keep active. There are creative ways we can connect online. It’s a good opportunity for us to broaden our horizons and experience new things; we are not limited by borders or the walls of a classroom. Please use the FDC social media platforms to promote stage combat initiatives you have created, or have been excited by.

I will be working with the Board and the Academy to plan our next steps in terms of programming. Conventional events like the Nationals and regional certification workshops are obviously off the table for now, but we will plan for how to quickly mobilize when a gathering is appropriate.

We will continue preparing for the planned FDCNext workshops, which was designed to include live-streamed classes. The current situation actually gives us an opportunity to figure out how best to do that; we are very interested in your remote class ideas. If you’d like to be a part of that discussion, please contact myself (president@fdc.ca) and Louisa (director@fdc.ca)

Our Academy will make provisions for any member whose training the has been interrupted, and will offer a range of novel suggestions for members to meet their various criteria when seeking certification or recertification.

Finally, it needs to be said that the next year will likely be a tough one for the association, as we will face financial difficulties due to losing our major events. We will do everything to keep all the membership services running. We will need to be creative with fundraising, and make best use of our volunteer Board and Committee members. If you’d like to get involved, please email myself and Brianna (secretary@fdc.ca).

The health of you and our loved ones is the most important thing. If we can help each other ease the other stresses that come with this situation, we will be all the stronger for it.

My best to you,
Patrick