In February 2020, UMRA moved its programming to the Zoom platform. By the spring of 2021, it appeared that we were emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, Jan Morlock (then president-elect and chair of the Program Committee), with the assent of the UMRA Board, was considering returning to in-person meetings, and on August 17 an outdoor get-together was successfully held at the Como Lakeside Pavilion in St. Paul. 

Even though the future is uncertain, with the delta variant of the coronavirus and perhaps others, UMRA’s Transition Task Force is meeting.

The charge to the task force is to provide recommendations to the UMRA Board about when to return to in-person meetings and the logistics surrounding that return, including timing, venue, public health practices, technology needs, and parking. 

The members of the task force are Bill Donohue, Erik Hockert, Virgil Larson, Ron Matross, Jan Morlock, Kris Mortensen, Jerry Rinehart, and Frank Cerra.

The first meeting of the task force was held on August 6 and focused on

1. considerations for potential venues: presenter needs, existing COVID activity and guidelines, start date, availability, and capacity, scheduling logistics, parking, and IT services.
2. potential venues: Campus Club, Graduate Minneapolis hotel, Bell Museum, Midland Hills Country Club, St. Paul Student Center, and Town & Country Club. Each member of the task force will be gathering information from these potential venues.
3. a recommendation to continue monthly meetings and programs via Zoom through February 2022.
4. a consideration for establishing an UMRA committee to manage meeting logistics, while the Program Committee remains responsible for meeting content.

The second meeting of the task force was scheduled for mid-September. All comments are welcome.

—Frank B. Cerra MD, Transition Task Force chair