GUIDELINES FOR MASKING AT FMC EVENTS

Starting Sunday, October 1, 2023, masking will be optional at Friends Meeting at Cambridge (FMC) according to the following guidelines.HEART (the HEAlthy Reopening Team) decided on Sept. 26 to slightly expand the mask optional seating area in the Meetinghouse based on an increasing number of people wishing to attend Meeting for Worship unmasked and some confusion over exactly what rows on the left side were mask optional (that were making some extra rows de facto mask optional).

April 7, 2024, HEART (the HEAathy Reopening Team) decided  to allow Forum presenters to choose to be maskless, either at their request or the request of attenders who can hear better that way.

  1. Starting Sunday, Oct 1, the entire left side of the Meetinghouse on the ground floor level (as you come in the main door) will be mask optional in addition to the balcony. Signs indicating mask-optional seating will be added to the rows immediately to the left as you come through the foyer and into the Meetinghouse.
  2. In the Friends Room and Parlor there will be continued masking for all during Forum, Afterthoughts and Meetings for Worship including Midweek Worship, Family Worship and specially-called Meetings for Worship.
  3. Optional masking at FMC events is permitted when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID-19 Community Level for Middlesex County stoplight [“CDC Stoplight”] is yellow or green. When the stoplight is red, masking at all events is required. CDC posts their weekly stoplight on Thursday evenings by 8:00pm.

  4. Masking is optional during indoor coffee hour after Meeting for Worship. Refreshments will be available indoors when the weather requires, and facilitators are available.
  5. If all members of a small (>20 people) group agree, optional masking is permitted in any room in the Friends Center.  For groups more of 20 or more, masks are required in the Friends Center.
  6. The HEAlthy Reopening Team will notify the community when the CDC spotlight is red.  When the CDC spotlight is red, all indoor consumption of food and beverages in the Friends Center is suspended.

Background:

At Meeting for Business in Worship in December Friends Meeting at Cambridge (FMC) approved optional masking both for indoor coffee hours and for small groups meeting in the Selleck or Committee rooms on the 2nd Floor of the Friends Center. [The first floor of the Friends Center and classrooms in the basement of Friends Center were already available for optional masking for small groups.] In January, FMC approved optional masking in the Meetinghouse balcony and to the left of the fireplace for Meeting for Worship or for Meeting for Business in Worship when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID-19 Community Level for Middlesex County stoplight [“CDC Stoplight”] is yellow or green.

HEART (HEAlthy Reopening Team) has decided that we will suspend indoor coffee hours and require mandatory masking in the Meetinghouse and Friends Center during any week(s) when the CDC stoplight for Middlesex County is red. Any such suspensions would be ended when the CDC stoplight goes back to yellow or green. CDC posts their weekly stoplight on Thursday evenings by 8:00pm.