Right now, with the Coronavirus and COVID-19, it is hard to predict where our country will be by the time Leadership School starts on July 12th. Here is our pledge to you:
We will make the decision about whether we need to cancel the in-person leadership schools by no later than June 1st. We will be following the guidance of the CDC, as well as Illinois State Health Department, and will be working in partnership with Illinois Wesleyan to ensure that it is safe to hold this event in person.
If the in-person schools are canceled, we will refund to you the total amount of your registration fees for congregations and students. Ordinarily, we would retain $25 to offset our costs of processing your fees and refund, but if we need to cancel the school because of this pandemic, you will receive everything back.
We are already looking at ideas about how we can help you get the leadership training you’re coming to the school to obtain through other virtual means. Nothing can compare to a week together in our own special community, that’s for sure. But we will look for other safer ways to “be with you” if we need to. We will advise about that when we make the decision about whether we need to cancel the schools.
We hope you will still register—knowing that your safety is our highest concern. Registration deadline is June 1st, but we hope you’ll register earlier than that, as we may not make the decision with enough time for you to submit your materials on time.