Update 3/25/2020
The State Council is now offering the use of our join.me software to help councils hold online/phone council meetings. See your grand knight for details.
As you know, the state convention is an expensive meeting that we host every year. To help defray the costs of the meeting, we sell ads in the convention book. This year, due to our state convention being held online, our costs are going to be much lower than usual, so we won’t need the assistance that the ads bring in. But, many of the councils have already sent in and paid for their ad in the book. Rather than issue refunds for those that have paid already, we are going to proceed with the book as usual and send it out electronically rather than printing it (saving the large printing cost). And everyone that has already paid will receive credit for next year’s ad. So, the money you spent on an ad this year will get you an ad this year and next year. Win-win.
Please continue to check or your council members. We are all in this together.
Update 3/18/2020
The coronavirus has caused disruption to all our lives and it appears that it will be around for a while longer. As you know, Fr. McGivney created the Knights of Columbus to protect our brothers, their widows, and their orphans. In that same spirit, to protect the health of our members and their families, we are going to change the format of our state convention this year.
Rather than meeting in person in Lexington, we are going to hold the convention virtually, on the internet. We will still have delegates and we will still do the regular business that we always do (Consider resolutions, elect state officers, elect delegates to the supreme convention, conduct a Kentucky Charities meeting, and more). The details for this are still being developed and I will let you know what they are as soon as possible.
Update 3/15/2020
Basketball Slam Sweepstakes – The Basketball Slam Sweepstakes is administered by Greenbee Inc. and they have devised a solution to overcome the fact that the March Madness Tournament has been canceled. The sweepstakes will continue on as usual, but Greenbee will be using scores from rounds of previous years of the NCAA Tournament. Here is what they said
“Unfortunately, the coronavirus (COVID-19) has caused the March NCAA College Basketball Tournament to be canceled. We are all disappointed but certainly understand the necessity of the cancellation.
Green Bee Fundraising has devised an alternative method to payout prizes. We know that you as a ticket holder will be pleased that the Basketball Slam Fundraiser will keep going to the end and all prizes will be paid to the winning ticket holders. Total points scored by all teams will still determine the winners.
Stay tuned! By Wednesday, March 18th, details of the alternate Basketball Slam Fundraiser will be revealed. Most importantly, we thank you for supporting your organization!!”
3/13/32020
Brothers,
The Coronavirus is here and will be disrupting our lives for the next few weeks or perhaps months. This has caused the cancelation of major events across the nation and the Knights of Columbus is also being affected. The Supreme Knight Carl Anderson put out a memo issuing guidelines for councils dealing with their meetings and programs. That letter is attached below.
In an effort to protect the health of everyone, we have postponed the State Free Throw Contest. We will reschedule it once we have a better handle on the situation.
There are many things that are up in the air for now due to this situation. For example, many of you have questions about what will happen with the Basketball Slam sweepstakes now that the NCAA March Madness Tournament has been canceled. We are discussing this and will be making an announcement in a few days. Please be patient as this entire situation evolves. We will do our best to keep the district deputies up to date on everything, so if you have questions please ask your district deputy first.
I know that you probably have questions about the state convention that is scheduled for May 15-17. As of now, we are going to move forward as planned. If the Coronavirus situation is still causing disruptions at that point, we will address the situation as it comes closer. I will keep you posted.
The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services has a webpage setup to provide information about the new COVID-19 virus. The webpage can be found here. This resource has a great deal of useful information, especially if you have concern that you may have been exposed to the virus. Please check it out.
This is a serious situation that deserves our full attention. But, please know that we will get through this. Thank you for being patient as this situation plays out. Until then, please stay safe!
Vivat Jesus,
Cameron Peck
State Deputy
Supreme-Knight-Memo-RE-Coronavirus-1