Dear New York DeMolay:
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected our entire nation, but here in New York we have been most impacted. We have had many questions about convention. We are committed to providing a great convention experience and are still planning on Convention August 13 -16th at Camp Turk as long as we can do so safely and legally. Our priority has and will always be the safety of our youth.
The ultimate decision may be out of our hands. The state and local governments have the final say in whether Camp Turk can operate and on the size of large gatherings. Be assured we will work with local health departments to ensure a safe and healthy convention. We also need to follow DeMolay’s safety and risk management policies and practices.
New York is a large state and while Governor Cuomo plans to authorize the opening of some parts of the state soon, it is possible that not all parts of the state will be open by August. The State Officers were brainstorming through options if parts of the state are open and Camp Turk available, but parts of the state are still hunkered down and under stay at home orders. The answer was “That it wasn’t convention unless all of our brothers could participate.”
With this in mind, the State Executive Committee has developed two options:
Plan A: New York DeMolay Convention will occur at Camp Turk for a cost of $125. Starting Thursday August 13th-August 16th. We are a weekend later than usual for convention because of the original schedule for the girls’ session at Camp Turk. When that was canceled, the trustees allowed us to switch the originally scheduled Monday for a Friday. The Installation of State Officers to occur on August 15 at 1PM. All of those details will be found on our website on May 1. This plan is based on all of New York’s 62 counties being open, the Governor allowing large gatherings, social distancing not being required and Camp Turk being open.
Plan B: There will be an electronic meeting via zoom on August 15, 2020 at 11AM. This will include the business portion of convention and the transfer of power from State Master Councilor Austin Altman to Deputy State Master Councilor Michael Jordan. LeadCon, currently scheduled for November 13-15, 2020 in Utica, NY will then incorporate many of the events we love from with the formal installation of State Officers to occur on November 14. This is the plan if not all of our counties are open, or we are not allowed to have large gatherings.
The State Officers were brainstorming through options what to do if part of the state was open and Camp Turk was available, but part of the state was still hunkered down and had stay at home. The answer was that it wasn’t convention unless all of our brothers could participate and we would go with Plan B.
A decision will be made no later than July 1, 2020. We have pushed registrations to being due by July 8, 2020 to accommodate this decision making. If you send us a check before then we will not cash it until we know the plan is going forward.
In closing, we thank everyone for their flexibility, their understanding, and their dedication to the ideals of DeMolay!
In the light of brotherhood,
Br. Austin T. Altman, State Master Councilor
Br. Michael Jordan, Deputy State Master Councilor
"Dad" Brusoe