PAX of F3 Metro,
First and foremost I am humbled and honored to meet, serve, and grow with each of you. Over the past few years F3 has changed my life, my perspective on the world, my focus on my family and the accountability to push myself further than I would alone. It has created for me a community of friends that I otherwise would never have had and it has re-introduced me into a Faith that I had turned away from.
I can personally attest that each of you has their own F3 story, a story of Determination, of Strength, of Grit and of Fortitude. This organization will change your life.
I am very grateful to SUMP for the past few years of leadership within our community, his enthusiasm and passion are contagious and I hope that his impact on our region remains steadfast.
As everyone can attest, this is a trying time for our families, our local Community, and our beloved F3. The rapid spread of the COVID-19 (CV) Virus is wreaking havoc on our businesses, culture, lifestyles and beyond; the effects are beginning to ramp up in the Metro community and the government is beginning to restrict our movements but as I have seen throughout my time in Metro our PAX are resilient and flexible, and we will find a way to Get our Fs in!
Recently, Mecklenburg County, the City of Charlotte and Surrounding areas the Emergency Management Coordinator and the County Public Health Director issued an updated proclamation restricting movement and requiring individuals only leave home to engage in certain essential activities.
The following is a summary of this order as it relates to our F3 groups.
- All places of public amusement where people may gather, whether indoors or outdoors, including but not limited to, ...playgrounds, recreation centers, ... and ... social clubs shall be closed to the public.
The section regarding Prohibited and Permitted Travel outlines some important requirements:
- All travel, except essential travel for essential activities is prohibited,
- Further... leaving the home for essential activities is permitted.
- "For purposes of this Proclamation, individuals may leave their residence only to perform any of the following Essential Activities
- For outdoor activity. To engage in outdoor activity, provided the individuals comply with Social Distancing Requirements, as defined herein, such as, by way of example and without limitation, walking, hiking, golfing, running, cycling, or using the greenways. Individuals may go to public parks and open outdoor recreation areas. However, playgrounds may increase spread of COVID-19, and therefore shall be closed.
So what defines an essential activity for the purposes of working out?
Basically its two parts, If you are an individual and you meet the criteria outlined above. You are allowed to individually participate in outdoor activities as long as you are following the social distancing guidelines.
F3 Men naturally want to be in groups, sometimes small groups, sometimes large groups and that proximity has given us tremendous advantage to help further our mission. Groups however can be the catalyst to this spread. Given the current state of the spread we have to ramp up precautions into the next phase of protection for our families and communities. This virus took 67 days to impact the first 100,000 people, since then it has surpassed the next hundreds of thousands of cases in 11, 4, and 1 day respectively. While 400,000+ cases is a relatively small number when looking at total populations, the rate of spread is alarming. As a result of this spread our Elected Leaders are calling on the Local Leaders within our Communities to help prevent the spread for the greater good.
Over the past few weeks we have shifted from Phase 1 to Phase 2 of our Community Protection Plan (CPP) and all of our regularly scheduled workouts have been suspended. Many PAX of F3 Metro, myself included, have participated in Off the Books (OTB) workouts without much difference in our previous operations by breaking up into small-ish groups, practicing social distancing during and after workouts and trying to follow the CDC guidelines for cleanliness.
That was a solid approach and I appreciated the Metro Board's decision and timing to enter Phase 2, however it's time to ramp it up.
As I questioned myself as to how to approach this situation for our region it became apparent very quickly that I needed help. As anyone who has ever been in a new position can attest, the path to leadership is best walked with others, as such I reached out to Danny Sanford AKA REDD FOXX to gauge his interest in taking this walk. He is a tremendously strong leader in our region both from a physical standpoint, and from a community focus and he was ready to jump in from the first task. In fact, our current 1st-F Q LEE already had begun discussing the process with Redd hoping he would take the helm. Many thanks to LEE for the years of ass kickin beatdowns, well planned convergences and for starting up a tradition of excellence with Q-School. Let's encourage REDD to keep the momentum from LEEs tenure and Please join me in welcoming @F3_ReddFoxx as Metro's new 1st-F Q!
So, with that out of the way, REDD and I set out to quickly plan for the future all the while knowing that our governing agents were forthcoming with a plan of their own. After much consultation with the current board and the leaders of the F3 Nation, REDD and I have decided to enter into Phase 3 of our Community Protection Plan (CPP)
F3 Metro Community Protection Plan #CPP March 2020
Phase 1: 3/12/2020
- CDC Social Distancing Guidelines (SDG) recommended which include 6' separation, hand washing before and after the workout, no Ball of Man at COT, no partner work, no sharing of coupons and more proactive decisions to stay home if feeling ill.
Phase 2: 3/16/2020
- All Workouts and Areas of Operation (AO) Officially closed. However, small group workouts of 2-3 pax are still encouraged, which include safe and smart Off the Books workouts utilizing the SDG requirements of Phase 1.
Phase 3: 3/25/2020
- Off the books workouts are strongly discouraged. Virtual Workouts are strongly encouraged. Whatever you do, keep accelerating. This is an unprecedented event for our established system. We have been built to lock shields and fight the hard battles as a forged unit. I encourage each of you to lock up and keep each other accountable.
So what does this mean for My Workouts moving forward?
Well, it means you need to be honest with yourself, this is a community of leaders with the underlying mission objective TO INVIGORATE MALE COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP built around the premise that as Leaders we all can make the decisions that affect our families and communities properly and effectively. In order to do this we request that all OTB workouts that meet at regular AO locations suspend activities until we can step back into phase 2 of the CPP.
I know this decision likely does not sit well with everyone. We all have our opinions on how elected officials, business owners, corporations, and other community leaders are handling this. The order issued by the county includes enforcement actions and penalties. The last thing we want is any type of negative attention in the media, on social platforms, or with local authorities. We ask that you set aside your personal perspective and think about F3 Metro as the backbone of this community, well recognized, with an extremely positive brand and reputation. We need to be mindful of this and focus on how we build upon the reputation of the past and show community leadership during this unprecedented time. Lets Lead By Example Brothers.
The county directive and our Phase 3 roll out of the CPP are both effective tomorrow morning at 8am. As the ultimate health of our PAX and communities are our primary objective, REDD FOXX and I are asking that our local Site Qs and AOs begin to focus on alternate means of forging the PAX using posted Workouts of the Day (WOD), online social challenges, and other virtual initiatives so that we can help keep the community we have built strong and capable of weathering the storm. I am most hopeful that our efforts will help decrease the duration we are in this situation and as a result our community and healthcare systems will be less stressed and under better control in the near term.
As strange as the timing is today I am asking each of you to take a hard look at yourselves and act with the courage that you've learned from the men that surround you as these are the times when our true colors shine. Lead from the Front and Protect what you Love. I look forward to serving you in the future and to witnessing the trajectory that METRO will take as we accelerate together.
-GRIZZ
I want to recognize Jesse Wilker UNCLE for his help with the behind the scenes work over the last few days to help the PAX prepare for this. He has helped coordinate multiple communication channels on Slack and added some functionality to the new website so our region can post WOD's and enable us to stay connected during this isolated time, thanks UNCLE!
Additional Resources:
- F3 Nation Statement on COVID-19
- Tim Whitmire (OBT) Creatively Impacting the Community
- New F3 Metro Website is up. The Pax can post a PreBlast (WOD) here without any credentials needed.
- Join F3 Metro’s Slack Channel. for more conversations about how to interact
- Join F3 Nation's Slack Channel for a broader look at how regions across the nation are handling the impacts.
- Isaiah 41:13
"Organizations are defined by the Effectiveness with which they accomplish their Mission" -DREDD, Q-Source