Hello all! This is Chris, President of SKAR club. I hope everyone is safe and getting ready to enjoy the holiday season. I wanted to send this email out to talk about the club moving into the future.

As many of you know, the club has been inactive for the most part since the COVID-19 pandemic started. I have floated the idea a few times individually over the past 6 months about starting up club activities, but have not received much feedback from those I have contacted.

In looking at the state of the club, I have decided that a few things need to occur;

1. Club reactivation
   I would like to restart both the club launches and the club build sessions. Club launches will resume the 4th Saturday of the month starting in January 2022 (Jan 22nd 2022) . This will give us a few months to get ready, take care of any administrative actions that need done, and also give us time with our families during the holiday season. (It will also allow me an opportunity to get my shop back in working order and ready to host build sessions)
   
   Build sessions will begin again, hopefully starting the 2nd Saturday of the month in Feb, but a few things will need to occur first, which I will discuss a bit further down.
   
2. Club Dues
   In preparation for the re-opening of the club, I will be looking at the finances. Anyone who has made a payment to the club towards club dues since Jan 1st 2020 will have those fees applied to their 2022 membership. Our club has sufficient funds to operate, and I see no reason to charge members for the time during the pandemic in which we were not operating.
   
   Further, if you are on this email list, or see this post on our webpage and have paid dues in that timeframe, but no longer wish to be a member, please contact us at president@skarclub.org to request a refund. I will need to know what form the payment came in, and the refund will be made back to the account that it came from if possible.
   
3. Club Officers and Advisers
   Our club charter/bylaws require that the officers and advisers be elected once a year. Since the club has not been operating, we have missed two election seasons. I feel that it is important that moving forward we make sure we are operating in accordance with our rules, and as such am opening up the nomination period for those seeking to run for a position on the Board of Directors. The nomination period will run until the end of January. Elections will be held the second week of February. The newly elected officers and advisers shall serve a modified term of 16 months. If you are interested in serving on the board for the coming year, please email president@skarclub.org
   
   Until such a time as new Officers and Advisers are elected, I will continue to fulfill role as interim President, and will work with the last Vice-President and Secretary-Treasurer to assure club operations and handover where necessary. As a reminder, the positions available are:
   • President
   • Vice President
   • Secretary-Treasurer
   • Senior Adviser Seat 1
   • Senior Adviser Seat 2
     
4. COVID-19 Mitigation
   Before we start launching and meeting for club events, we will need to have a conversation about what we would like to do to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. My plan is to work with the current Board to come up with a plan, and then allow members to comment. We will take these comments into consideration and make modifications as necessary. Our goal is to find the balance where our members will feel both safe, and respected.
   
5. By-Laws and Quarterly Review
   Once new board members are elected, we will need to review our By-Laws, member dues and plans going forward.

If anyone has any questions, comments or concerns about the club moving forward, please contact me, as always. I look forward to seeing all of you soon and resuming club activities!