Community Highlights
To update, COVID-19 community protection standards remain in place heading into the final months of 2020.  Community leadership is appreciative of residents following basic social distancing guidelines and continue to encourage everyone to use face mask protection in all indoor settings.

Addressing indoor settings, all common use building air filtration systems have been upgraded to MERV 13 filters.  It is my understanding the high-end MERV filters are among the best in pushing reticulated purified air throughout our common indoor areas.  In Clay Arts/Glass Arts, a higher level ceiling mounted specialty unit featuring HEPA air purification filtration is used.  This system cleans our studio air of micron, as well as clay particulate, several times an hour.

For foodies amongst us, GOOD NEWS.  The Grand Cafe just reopened featuring a reconfigured footprint and UPGRADED culinary offerings.  The Grand Cafe is now open from 7AM to 8PM seven days a week.  Sun City Grand has inked a ten-year agreement with Unidine Corporation, a leader in restaurant and life-style dining experiences.  To top it off, SCG has our own Chef Butch, a well-seasoned, well-traveled Culinary Arts of America alumni.  Chef Butch's goal is to turn SCG from a food desert into a mecca of wonderful food and drink!

Clay Arts Studio Standards
COVID-19 community restrictions continue to guide our daily approach to Clay Arts studio activities.  For the foreseeable future, the following guidelines remain in place:

• Signed C-19 community liability waiver
• Face mask worn at all times
• Upgraded studio hygiene standards
• 3-hour work space booking
• Limited studio capacity
• In/Out ten minute work-in-progress visits
• In- lobby reservation system
• Intense (twice per week) deep cleaning studio procedure
• GCA members only allowed in studio

Adherence to these standards keeps the studio safe as possible for all members to enjoy.

GCA October Membership Meeting 10/22/20 at 9:00 AM on Zoom
For the foreseeable future, GCA monthly membership meetings will be held on Zoom.  The Zoom application is easy to download on home computers or laptops.  SCG provides access for up to several hundred participants per meeting.  Look for an email blast outlining details this coming week.  Currently, CAM/HOA guidelines disallow in-person, large group meetings.  For those of us using Zoom, it has developed into a great tool for online meetings.  At this time, a schedule for reopening indoor community rooms to meetings and events has not been established.  Zoom remains our next best option to engage general membership in meetings.

Pottery Sales
SCG market day and event cancellations eliminate key avenues to share GCA creations community-wide.  IT Director, Karen LeMar, and her team are addressing the issue.  The creative results of the team's efforts will reestablish forward momentum in offering GCA pottery to the community.  Additionally the full breadth of GCA creations will be available in one convenient location.  Thank you IT Team!

See you at the Zoom meeting!

The IT team is excited to announce three GCA Website features that are on the drawing board.  Please take a look and let us know your thoughts.  We value your feedback and work to ensure the Website provides value to your GCA experience.  There is still work to be done, and as these features become available for your use, the details will be provided.

Clay Arts Gallery
This site will provide members an online outlet to market and sell finished pieces.  It will be accessible from the home page for sales outside the club.  Members may request up to five pieces be listed on the site.  Delivery of pieces will be at the club; no shipping provided.

Online Supplies Store
Within the Website, members will be able to purchase clay, stickers and tools.  It will work like Amazon or other marketplace sites, in that payment will be via credit card through PayPal.  Orders will be filled and can be picked up in the club.

Classified Ads
This feature is for members to re-sell extra tools, clay and other related items via a classified ads "bulletin board."  There is no interaction or online payment with this feature.  Members will be able to request items be placed on the site by clicking on a link within the page.  (Note that clay artwork may not be sold here; they are sold only through the Clay Arts Gallery.)
 

---

It has been one year since the first issue of this newsletter.  I am including an article from that issue as a reminder of the original intent to publish a monthly communication that would keep us engaged with the club and with each other by sharing our ideas, projects, tips, class and club information.  As we begin a new "season" here in Sun City Grand, we have come through what has been the most challenging spring and summer any of us has ever had to face.  With the pandemic, we have used this newsletter to keep you informed of the closure, reopening and restrictions we now live with on a daily basis.  I have found it a valuable resource and I hope you have as well.  And I would like to once again encourage your participation, either through reading the newsletter or sharing information, ideas, tips, et cetera, via the newsletter.  This is your vehicle.  Please let us know what's going on with you as you continue to create with that lovely stuff we know as clay!