b'Wendellas management listened to its employees and took steps toStriking the right chord in a corporate message can be challenging. safeguardthemthroughouttheuncertainty.ThesestepsincludedMore and more, however, a corporate response has become important curtailing nighttime cruises, moving vessels to docks the operator ownstocustomers,suppliersandemployees.Longtimecorporate in quieter parts of the city, and putting into place a buddy system tocommunications/PR veteran for several blue chip companies LaToya walk vulnerable employees to and from public transportation before/ Evans spoke to Business Insider in early June.after their shift.Whether its the global COVID-19 pandemic Asshockingasitsounds,thesituationorthemurderofGeorgeFloyd,companies describedbyAndrewSargisisntuniqueBecause we operateneed to understand that peopleincluding to Wendella. Other PVA operators in Newtheiremployees,consumers,shareholders, YorkCity,Portland,OR,andtheTwinin one of the mostand stakeholdersare watching their actions Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, MN,ethnically diversecarefully during this time, Evans said. have expressed concern about the effect this years unrest has had on vessel operationscities in the world,Wendelladecidedagainstmakingapublic on top of the COVID-19 pandemic. Onewe knew we hadstatement and focused instead on the safety of PVA vessel member described his city ofits employees and customers. operation as akin to a war zone. to address the Black Lives MattersForthosethatdoopttohaveacorporate message, what should it be? Sargis pointed out FINDING THE RIGHT WORDSmovement quicklythat some Wendella employees have strong ties HearingSargisconcernsatthePVAto law enforcement while others are persons EmergingLeadersCommitteevirtualand honestly. ofcolorandhavepersonalexperiencewith meeting,CaptainSarahPennington,thediscrimination and abuse.General Manager at Classic Harbor Line, New York, NY, empathized and when the subject of how to addressFinding the right words is tough, Pennington noted. Its really this sensitive subject with employees and customers arose, she sharedrough.her experiences at her operation earlier in the year.Pennington explained they felt obligated to get to work right away Because we operate in one of the most ethnically diverse cities in theon their messaging. That instinct of moving quickly was dead-on, world, we knew we had to address the Black Lives Matters movementaccording to Evans. Penningtons goal was to simply begin writing quickly and honestly, she recalled. We couldnt just not say anything,while working in a small group. They decided to disregard imagery as it but at the same time, we wanted to be certain that our words helped,could distract from the message. and not hurt.KEEPING BAY AREA FLEETS IN SERVICE FOR OVER 40 YEARSBay Ship and Yacht makes it a priority to per-form on-time, quality service for all vessels. We are a full service shipyard cosistently serving Al- 5 1 0 . 3 3 7 . 9 1 2 2 ameda, San Francisco Bay, the west coast andwww.bay-ship.com the worlds maritime industry for over 40 years. A l a m e d a , C ANOV 2020 11 FOGHORN FOCUS'