Island Flooded, Races could be cancelled.

I have bad news -- the festival committee has emailed to say their application for a race permit at Marilyn Bell has been denied.

Captains were emailed a little earlier today and given two dates in July to consider. Or neither. The dates given were July 15-16 and July 22-23. I made an executive decision to vote for neither date. Here's why:

- in the past, summer has proven extremely difficult to get team members out. This is due to people going to the cottage and on holidays. It is why we have never successfully arranged another race festival nor even, our team dinner. However...I realize this year the circumstances are a bit different...

- to change dates means booking more practices which is problematic for many reasons (including availability and more than that, a place to practice). Sunnyside, as you know, is cancelling more than it's going ahead. However, ...I recognize that we are owed time by them right now and that could account for extra dates pushed into summer...

- by pulling out the festival now, I can fight to get our money back. It's almost $2500 that I am not willing to lose. We can use it next year. However, ...Im not sure if they will do a (full) refund. This could make for an ugly legal situation that I would have no idea how to fight.

- by pulling out now, we can attempt to get our practices money back (another $2000). However...I have no idea if Blake is going to go for that. Again, I don't know if he can legally keep it but still...

This begs the question of whether we go ahead in any shape or form.

If enough of the team want to go ahead with the July dates, I could change our vote. But, I need EVERYONE. That's the only way.

I would appreciate your thoughts and help in this matter. It's all proving to be a bit above my pay scale!!

Please decide whether you are doing a "reply all" or simply a "reply" just to me. We don't want to overload people's inboxes but I welcome a group discussion.

Regards,

Amanda