Dear ERC member,

Hopefully you are in good health and safely working from home or in a safe environment otherwise.
Today, March 27, the Steering Committee came together in a virtual meeting. First of all to update each other on their personal wellbeing and that of our relatives and companies, and second to prepare for a decision for our community event on June 4 in Den Helder.

Fortunately we are all in good health, including our relatives. Some of our colleagues have been reported Corona infected and few have been taken into hospital. Let’s hope they will get better soon and without further consequences to their health.

Looking at the world around us and within our companies, we see – what we now call in the Netherlands – a smart lockdown. No business travel, internationally nor locally, working form home as much as possible, closed offices and continued operations where possible. The energy industry has been appointed by the Dutch government as ‘critical processes and infrastructures’ which means that Shell continues production, storage and distribution of oil products and petrochemicals – like other critical functions such as the food supply chains and waste collection.

The smart lockdown of our government includes closure of large events until June 1 for which permits are required: festivals, concerts and other public events. We think we should follow the government policies as a guideline to operate safely. Since there will be new announcements end of March, we keep our decision regarding our planned community meeting on June 4 to early April, but we anticipate cancellation. At the same time we are considering virtual possibilities, e.g. for our working groups. If classrooms can be held virtual, why not our working groups?

So far our reflections on the situation we are all in. We will come back to you as soon as possible and for now we wish you to stay healthy and safe in your environment.

On behalf of the Steering Committee,
Ewald Breunesse
Jan Prins
Barthold Schroot
René Peters