WE ARE MORE TOGETHER.
In April, I remember sitting at my desk waiting with such uncertainty for the announcement from Governor Stitt on how our state was going to move forward during the Covid Pandemic. I watched as friends and family lost their jobs, businesses that served our community for generations shut down and people sheltered at home to safeguard themselves and family members from this unseen enemy that had shaken all of humanity. Facts were hard to separate from fiction and CDC guidelines became a part of our new everyday lives. Wash your Hands Multiple Times a Day, Stay at Home, and Wear a Mask While Practicing Social Distancing 6 feet or More became our new mottos.
As part of the ASID Oklahoma board, we decided in April to halt all our planned activities through the end of summer. This was a tough decision especially after we had an amazing turn out for our Holiday Party and hosted a very successful Student Day with students and educators present from 4 different Oklahoma schools. Although we wanted to keep going and already had events in motion, at the end of the day, the safety and wellbeing of members and students was far more important than any event we had planned. We knew with our member involvement at events already being very low that we would need to use this time to reflect on ourselves and see how to better our relationship with each person within ASID Oklahoma so we have adapted and made a few changes.
As designers, we are taught or know how to think outside the box. How to grab on to an idea and figure out how to make it work better than ever thought. This will be the case with events for the near future. I love seeing people with common ground coming together to share ideas, tell stories of success or failure, and just have a laugh. We are committed to you as the ASID Oklahoma board to enrich you not only as an individual designer but as a community of designers and we want you to feel like you belong to that community. This is where you as members come into play. We need you to be involved in that community. Let’s face it, sometimes it isn’t what you know but who you know. I have built many new relationships within ASID and the design community over the years. There have been times during all this, that it was nice just to be able to have a light conversation with a designer friend and regain some balance between work and social life. Our events for this coming year are all planned out with CDC guidelines in place and will be announced through Facebook, Instagram, and mobile text alerts. I would love to see you at our future events and look forward to meeting you if I have not as of yet.
Stay well & blessed my friends and thank you again.
You are always appreciated.
Nathan R. Hughes, Allied ASID
ASID Oklahoma Chapter President
President@ok.asid.