Hello Brethren,
I am saddened to be the messenger of this unfortunate news.
The Providence Park Stadium just scheduled a Thorns game for the Friday night we were to hold our Spring Reunion and they also added a Timbers vs Seattle Sounders game on that Saturday.
When the stadium increased to 25,218 seats in 2019, with no additional parking for their patrons, they completely outgrew the capabilities of the neighborhood to accommodate the attendance with the tiny number of parking spaces available around us. As a result with typical games for Thorns and Timbers all the parking in the area is completely gone four hours beforehand, but with Sounders games the neighborhood parking fills up much earlier and it is utter chaos and traffic jams are constant throughout the entire day. The ART was unable to broker any deals to get us additional parking so we would only have the 20 spaces in the parking lot they have been renting for us over the past four years at Rack Attack directly across the street from the stadium.
Due to consistent conflicts for scheduling on weekends in the coming months this forced us to make the difficult vote last night to cancel this Reunion at the Stated Meeting. Even if we had gotten our old small 60 space parking lot at the ART back by this time it would still be an insurmountable problem as I mentioned due to the increase of over 25,000 people in the neighborhood every time an event is held at the stadium.
The earliest available dates that there are no other conflicts for a Friday and Saturday with the Stadium, other Valleys, Appendant and Concordant Masonic Bodies, and our pre booked event rentals is in July. Without any air-conditioning in the theater it will be too warm to use the auditorium by then. We have tried single day and multiple week Reunions in the past, but they were very difficult for the casts and crew and that resulted in most of the participants saying they would not want to do it that way again.
Over all Brethren I am sorry we were not be able to find a suitable solution to reschedule this Reunion in the near future. I appreciate those cast and crew members who were willing to step up for roles in this one, we will just have to make the next one all the better because of it.
We will be holding a Reunion in the Fall of this year, the date of which has yet to be finalized. Our three candidates will be receiving notifications providing alternatives for curtesy conferrals should they want to begin to get their degrees sooner. The few of you who purchased meals in advance should have them refunded shortly.
Fraternally,
Br. Nathan Neff, 32°, K∴C∴C∴H∴
Orient General Secretary
Oregon Scottish Rite