June 11, 2021

Dear WSS Friends & Family,

Ministry within the body of Christ is vital at all times, but as we endure a long, challenging year, ministry is vital now more than ever. With this in mind, we prayerfully and eagerly continue conducting ministry at White Sulphur Springs by hosting guest groups and our own programs.

While we cannot eliminate all risks associated with COVID, we are confident that we can take measures to reasonably reduce risk, allowing us to conduct ministry.

We ask guests who attend a program at WSS to help us keep everyone safe by complying with the following guidelines:

• If you have not yet received the COVID-19 vaccine, please conduct a self-screening of everyone in your travel party before traveling to WSS. If anyone in your travel party is experiencing any COVID-like symptoms in the 96 hours leading up to your arrival or knowingly been exposed to someone with a positive COVID test result within the past 10 days, we ask you to stay home and not travel to WSS.
• If you have received the COVID-19 vaccine and haven’t experienced a fever or other symptoms in the 48 hours leading up to your arrival, you are welcome to join us at WSS.
• Communicate your comfort level by placing a colored sticker, provided at the front desk, on your nametag when checking in upon arrival:
  • Green: “I am comfortable with handshakes and/or hugs; I’d love to sit with you or your family at a mealtime; I’m comfortable with you sitting next to me in the PJ Room during worship and teaching times; I’m comfortable talking with you without our masks on”
  • Yellow: “I’d prefer a fist/elbow bump over a handshake; I may be OK with eating with others in the dining room if there is some extra room at the tables; I’d prefer to have some space in the PJ Room; I’d prefer we keep masks on while talking indoors in most instances”
  • Red: “I’d prefer to keep 6 feet social distancing as much as possible; I am going to try and eat separately at mealtimes; I would prefer to keep socially distant in the PJ Room; I’m more comfortable if we keep masks on anytime I’m within 6 feet of someone other than my family members”
• We ask guests to wear a mask when going through the buffet lines in the dining room and to be prepared to wear one in deference to a guest that is more cautious (i.e. a yellow or red dot).
  • The mask mandate in Pennsylvania ends on June 28. At that point, masks for our guests will be optional throughout the building, but we will continue to ask guests to be prepared to defer in love to others that remain more cautious.
• Be aware that some guests are going to be more cautious or more casual in their approach to COVID. Allow for those differences within the body of Christ and be respectful as each family finds the right level of protection or interaction while here at WSS. Be comfortable in communicating to other guests your desires in either finding ways to interact more while here, or finding ways to ensure a greater level of protection for you and your family than even the guidelines at WSS establish.
• Give grace. We recognize that some of these restrictions and changes to how we normally operate are not comfortable or enjoyable. They are intended to help protect you as well as the WSS team. Our fervent prayer and hope is that the WSS staff can continue hosting guests, so your help in observing these guidelines not only helps protect the guests currently in the hotel, but also helps ensure our ability to minister to the guests coming to the next program because you are helping to keep the WSS staff healthy.
• Remember that as guidelines and recommendations change, or as the need might require, our policies are subject to change, too.
• If you are uncomfortable in any way with COVID-19 protocols throughout your stay, talk to us! We’d love to make your stay as enjoyable as possible, so please don’t hesitate to talk to a staff member about your concerns.

Here are some measures we have already taken or will take to reasonably reduce risk and protect our guests and staff:

• Capped attendance for our own programs based on the governor’s indoor dining guidance at the time
• Increased cleaning and sanitizing protocols for our Guest Services Team to more frequently clean common areas, commonly touched surfaces, and public bathrooms
• Changes in our food service procedures, such as buffet lines, to allow for greater guest safety at meal times
• In order to provide an additional level of protection for our staff so that we can hopefully run a full summer of programs, you will likely see our staff wearing masks at times and places that we don’t require guests to. It’s not that we don’t want you to see our smiling faces…only that we want to do what we reasonably can to be ready to serve the guests next week as well.
• Seating in the Pettijohn Room by family “pods” to allow for distancing between families or travel parties that choose to sit together
• Extra tables set in the dining room to allow for guests that desire to eat all their meals as a family at a separate table are able to do so
• Changes to some of our program and scheduling to be mindful of the numbers gathering in any single room for an event
• The health of our guests and staff is always a priority, so we will continue to monitor ongoing developments and guidance from authorities and health officials, and we will cancel events at any point that we feel it is unsafe to continue hosting guests at WSS.

If you have to cancel your reservation for a WSS program for any reason or feel that you are not comfortable complying with any of these guidelines, you may choose to receive a full refund, apply any previous payments as credit to a future stay at WSS, or you are welcome to donate your previous payments as a gift to WSS.

Thank you for your understanding, your prayers, and your cooperation as we seek to conduct ministry in an ever-changing environment. We look forward to hosting you for your next getaway!

In Hope,

Paul Robyn

WSS Center Director