Forum COVID-19 session via video only

The Salt Spring Forum has cancelled Friday’s public event focusing on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19),with guest speaker Dr. Kevin Patterson and changed it to a video-only format.

It will be viewable on Saturday, March 14 on the Salt Spring Forum website.

This is the full statement from the Salt Spring Forum, issued at 1:30 on Thursday.

A CHANGE OF PLANS

A week ago, when concern over the spread of the COVID-19 virus was mounting, we at the forum had the good idea to engage our community in a conversation with two knowledgeable Salt Springers about the virus, about the nature of such epidemics, about best practices for prevention and care, and about whatever else our community might find useful to know. We invited Dr. Kevin Patterson and Aletha Humphreys (director of Greenwoods) for one of our traditional Forum evening discussions at ArtSpring. Both are happy to join us, and of course without any thought of remuneration.

What a difference a week makes.

It has become clear that public gatherings are getting quite risky. “Social distancing” is recommended as a key component in keeping the epidemic within the bounds of what the health care system can cope with, a point that Kevin made on CBC radio this morning.

So here’s what we’re going to do: We’ll still go ahead with the conversation with our guests, only we’ll do it without a live audience. We have arranged with a professional video producer to film the discussion between Kevin and Aletha, and then we’ll post the result on the Forum’s website (www.saltspringforum.com), hopefully by Saturday morning.

Here is what you can do: 1) Please e-mail us specific questions you would like us to pose to our guests as soon as you can to forum@saltspringforum.com. We’ll gather them up and do our best to have them answered. 2) If you have already purchased tickets, we’ll be happy to get you a refund. Alternatively, if you’d be willing to treat your tickets as a donation, that would be most helpful for us to cover the costs both of renting ArtSpring and paying for the video. Either way, please put your tickets into an envelope and leave it for us at the ArtSpring Box Office. Please include your address so we can send you either a refund or a tax receipt, as you choose.