Effective August 10th, 2020, Washington State has announced new guidelines for fitness businesses. These new guidelines include occupancy limits based on space available, and allow us to expand our offerings somewhat.

The complete revised guidelines are available on the Governor’s website.

Some important changes that are included in these guidelines:

• The maximum number of athletes in a room is one per 300 square feet of space, not counting coaches. While this would theoretically allow us to have up to 24 fencers in our main gym and 20 in the north gym, we feel that those numbers would not be prudent at this time. We will be limiting our activities to approximately half of those numbers so that fencers in group classes can spread out further.
• Spectators are not allowed in the room at practices under these guidelines. Everyone not actively participating in an activity on the floor (parents, younger siblings, and fencers waiting for their class or lesson) should wait in the lobby, upstairs, or outside.
• We will be scheduling some limited-capacity open fencing sessions – one hour long, with a maximum of 5 fencers per gym. Reservations through the online calendar will be required. More details will be forthcoming soon.
• The new guidelines allow exercising without facial coverings as long as participants unmask immediately before exercise and re-mask immediately after. However, RCFC will continue to require facial coverings for everyone at all times, including under the fencing mask.

At this time, fencing competitions do not look possible any time soon. We will follow the policies of the Western Washington Division of USA Fencing regarding the feasibility of starting small local tournaments.

We appreciate the cooperation of all our fencers and parents in helping to keep everyone safe. Thank you!