Alliance Collaborative Releases COVID-19 Challenge Course Reopening Strategies
Funkstown, MD—Today the Alliance Collaborative (The Alliance) is releasing a new document that provides challenge courses and aerial attractions a resource for developing reopening strategies. The thirty-page document takes into consideration guidelines and research put forth by the Center for Disease Control, World Health Organization, American Camp Association and the Association of Camp Nurses, and offers suggestions for ways to adapt course operations to be in line with requirements.
Recognizing that multiple companies were working independently to create similar plans, members of The Alliance decided to pool their resources and work collaboratively to create a strategy document that could be shared throughout the industry. Members of The Alliance’s COVID-19 Committee spent weeks researching various health and safety guidelines and participating in industry webinars and video conferences that led to the development of a set of strategies for implementing physical distancing, equipment sanitization, and other safety protocols.
“We wanted to provide a ‘how-to’ guide to help businesses in our industry move toward reopening,” said Bill Weaver, General Manager of The Alliance. “Some smaller organizations don’t have the resources to do countless hours of research and create a detailed reopening strategy on their own. This document will help them get over that hurdle.”
The document includes ideas for incorporating COVID-19 safety procedures into the operations of a challenge course or aerial attraction. These include specific cleaning procedures for courses and equipment, suggestions regarding usage of additional personal protective equipment (PPE), employee health screening policies, encouraging effective handwashing, and ways for organizations to incorporate physical distancing on their courses. It also provides suggestions for how to best work with vendors to conduct inspections and trainings with COVID-19 safety in mind.
“Our industry experts have been seated at the table where these issues were being discussed. This document is our suggested plan of how to strategically approach implementation of new COVID-19 protocols for individual challenge course and aerial attraction operators,” said Weaver.
Included in the strategy document are sample forms and templates for COVID-19 operational plans, cleaning logs, employee self-check tracking logs, and several sample policy and procedure documents. These are the types of documents that could be adapted and submitted to state or local officials as part of an official reopening plan.
The document is available for free download at https://www.thealliancecollaborative.com/covid19-resources.
There will also be upcoming webinars to answer questions and provide additional background information. The Alliance Collaborative Webinar: Reopening - Exploring Strategies will take place on Tuesday, May 19 at 1 p.m. Eastern Time. Interested parties can request the Zoom access link by emailing info@thealliancecollaborative.com. Check The Alliance website for dates and times of additional webinars.
For more information, visit www.thealliancecollaborative.com or call 800-561-6209.
The Alliance Collaborative Webinar: Reopening - Exploring Strategies
Tuesday, May 19th at 1:00pm Eastern
Join us on Zoom for a virtual roundtable discussion with our panel on navigating requirements, recommendations, and developing strategies for determining when and how to reopen courses and attractions.
Representatives from The Adventure Guild, Challenge Works, Experiential Resources, Experiential Systems, Milwaukee Public Schools, Rope Works and Zip Lost Pines will be on hand for the discussion.
Alliance Collaborative members, vendors and operators will share research and recently developed materials based on the latest available recommendations from The Alliance, ACA, ACN, ACCT and others.
This one-hour event will include prepared comments, organized specific questions, and opportunities for attendees to ask individual questions.