Dear Member,
The WFTDA takes the health and safety of its members and the entire roller derby community seriously. As the spread of COVID-19 intensifies and becomes more widespread, WFTDA leadership has been collaborating with National Governing Bodies and roller derby organizations to monitor conditions in regions around the world.
We understand that COVID-19 recommendations have already started to impact roller derby gameplay worldwide and the WFTDA will continue to monitor and adjust our best practices as we learn more.
Aside from health impacts, WFTDA members and leagues should also be ready to review possible financial impacts that the COVID-19 virus is beginning to have on world trade markets and economies. We recognize that many of our member leagues rely on events for important revenues, and it’s crucial that leagues are contemplating both physical and financial health of all members.
At this time, the WFTDA recommends several precautionary tactics for our member organizations:
- If members of your league or event have cold and/or flu symptoms, ask them to stay home.
- If your league has members that have traveled to high risk areas be sure to consult recommendations from your local or national health agency.
- If your league and/or event is located in an area in which there have been reported cases of COVID-19, try to limit non-essential activities. Be sure to consult with your local and municipal authorities with regards to recommendations around limiting non-essential events, or any guidelines around the number of participants in attendance. Also when hosting an event that is not cancelled, recognize that you may have participants who may need to cancel due to concerns about the virus. You should have staffing contingency plans in place to manage these cancellations.
- Suspend your attendance policy for the time being if you don’t have a medical leave of absence policy (LOA). This helps maintain a culture where your league mates don’t feel obligated to come to practice feeling unwell because of attendance pressure.
- Please re-familiarize yourselves with your league venue and event contracts. In particular, be sure to review any clauses related to cancellations or force majeure clauses pertaining to circumstances that may impact cancellations. If you are located in an area with a significant number of reported cases, you may want to consider asking venues and contractors about optional dates for events.
- Review your league finances to determine what role larger events have in your annual budget, and what might need to change if your organization’s local government recommends event cancellation. Wherever relevant, check in with your National Governing Body for locally relevant roller derby-specific advice.
Also at this time, the WFTDA Sanctioning and Rankings Committees are working on contingency plans to help manage concerns around cancelled games that charter teams require for rankings, including those who may qualify for seeding into WFTDA Continental Cups and Playoffs. We are also reaching out to upcoming WFTDA Recognized Tournaments to assist in navigating concerns as they arise.
If you need to cancel a sanctioned game due to coronavirus, contact WFTDA Sanctioning at sanctioning@wftda.com as soon as possible. As per the WFTDA Forfeit Policy, Games canceled due to outside factors such as venue closures, virus concerns or travel bans would not be subject to forfeit fines. If it is possible to reschedule the game, WFTDA Sanctioning will assist leagues in doing so and would waive any late fee should the most convenient reschedule date fall within the 30-day window. If rescheduling is not possible, WFTDA will work with participating leagues to assess the impact of the cancellation on ranking and Playoffs eligibility game minimums and to find a solution.
Leagues should stay up-to-date with their national, regional, and local government warnings about the virus as situations can change rapidly and are location-dependent. The World Health Organization, and a variety of national medical associations post frequent links and updates online, including:
US Center for Disease Control
Public Health Agency of Canada
Public Health England
European Commission
Australian Department of Health
WFTDA Risk Management and the WFTDA Coronavirus task force have the following recommendations to help your league implement good practices that help prevent the spread of illness.
REMEMBER
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It’s 4 easy things to remember:
- STAY HOME IF YOU’RE SICK!
- Cover your coughs and sneezes. (Don’t cough in your hands, but rather in your elbow.)
- Wash your hands for 20 seconds (sing a short song); use hand sanitizer before and after practice.
- Don’t forget about your gear! Wash it and spray it with a cleaning product that is designed to kill germs and viruses--diluted bleach solutions, a product with at least 70% alcohol, or other household disinfectants may work. Be sure to check with your local government recommendations on germicides. For example, the US Center for Disease Control maintains a list of sanitizing and disinfecting best practices.
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PLEASE NOTE this virus is no reason or excuse to allow discrimination, racism, or xenophobia. The WFTDA Code of Conduct is still very much in effect, and we recommend that you remind your members about your own Code of Conduct as well.
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For more information:
WHO training course: Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) for Novel Coronavirus
When Xenophobia spreads like a virus, by NPR.
Please continue to check our COVID-19 web page for the most up-to-date WFTDA requirements and recommendations. We will update this page as needed, and continue to send email alerts when required.
We invite you to share these recommendations with your league and community members, and thank you for your assistance in helping us keep our community healthy and safe.
Sincerely,
Erica Vanstone
WFTDA Executive Director