National Urban League Response to Corona Virus
Colleagues:
As you know, the Corona virus has reached 'PANDEMIC' status according to the World Health Organization.
The number of individuals affected has doubled, not just in the Unites States, but throughout the world. The NBA, MLB and NCAA have cancelled or postponed games until further notice. Several communities have closed schools, many universities across the country have gone to online courses only, and a travel ban to Europe has been put in place.
All of this has taken place within one week since our last e-mail to Affiliate CEOs.
The National Urban League still strongly suggests that you follow the advice and guidance of your city, county, parish, or state governments, local health authorities, and CDC guidelines.
At this point, the BEST and most current information regarding this virus is being disseminated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Below please find a link to the CDC website:
In addition, we recommend the following:
National Urban League Signature Programs:
NUL staff are available to assist you and your staff with program questions, technical assistance and reimbursement payments. We have put together a plan of action; even if staff here in New York or at our Washington Bureau are working from remote locations, we will continue to serve our Affiliate Movement.
Fundraising Events:
Proceed at your discretion and upon the advice from your local health authorities. We know that many affiliates have planned and/or are about to engage in their annual fundraising events (annual dinners, galas, balls, luncheons, golf tournaments, etc.). However, in many communities, large functions are discouraged and event planners are asked to curtail the size of gatherings to no more than twenty individuals.
We recommend that you, if at all possible, postpone your event until later in the year. Alert stakeholders and sponsors of the situation, and they may work with you, even to the point that the sponsor(s) will offer to let you keep their donations without proceeding with the event. In addition, it might be a good idea to review your insurance policy to see if you have special event business interruption insurance.
This may be an opportunity to meet with your finance staff and finance committee to put together a revised annual budget to work out an alternative avenue for fundraising or to reflect on a reduction in revenue for the year.
Be certain to keep your board involved so they, along with you, are working on solutions to this unprecedented situation.
Staffing
At your discretion, and at the advice of your local government and health authorities, consider either staggering work hours, or working from home. If at all possible, and based on your program guidelines, stagger staff arrival to the workplace if they are taking public transportation so they are traveling at 'off peak' hours.
This will, in some cases, reduce their exposure to a massive number of people during 'peak travel hours.'
Each affiliate should look into an 'off site' or work from home option, if at all possible; allow employees to take laptop computers to work from home, with the access of hot spots and/or internet access at home.
The most important thing is to remain calm for you, your staff and your family! Set up a task force of staff, board members and stakeholders; you cannot, nor should you, do this alone. This is a global pandemic which requires many stakeholders in your community, working collectively to come up with a local plan of action. You should be part of this process.
NUL will keep monitoring this situation, globally, nationally and in many cases, locally.
We will get through this!
Thank you,
Marc
Marc H. Morial
President and Chief Executive Officer