2020 WAEA Annual Meeting

Dear potential WAEA meeting participant,

As you all know our meeting is currently scheduled to be held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, from June 28-30, at the historic LaFonda on the Plaza hotel (https://www.lafondasantafe.com/ . You may call and reserve a room and let them know this is for the WAEA conference. Our room rates apply for 3 days before and after the conference)

I have worked with the executive council and the LaFonda, and we have the following contingency plan in place given the COVID-19 pandemic.

1. We are currently moving forward as if the meeting will take place.
2. All committee chairs are moving forward with paper selections, award selections, and the graduate paper competition.
3. I am working with the venue, and we are moving forward with menu selection, room scheduling, and scheduling of audio and projector needs.
4. On May 15, 2020 the executive council and I will make the decision as to whether we will move forward with or cancel the meeting.
5. If we decide to have the meeting, registration via our new website will be available immediately following the decision on May 18.  We will extend our originally planned deadlines for room reservations and registration to accommodate shortened travel planning cycles.
6. If we decide to cancel the meeting, we will send all awardees their certificates, plaques, etc., and we will publish information about the awards including our fellows on our website and in JARE as we normally do.  We may also decide to have some limited meeting content available digitally, but that will be decided after our May 15 decision deadline.
7. Regardless of whether we have the meeting all newly elected officers or directors will start their leadership roles for the association, and those directors or officers completing their terms will be done, as of July 1, 2020.

We are asking that potential participants keep the appropriate travel dates open in their calendar to attend the meeting in Santa Fe.  We encourage you to make any plans, reservations, etc. that you feel are appropriate given your current travel restrictions at your respective institution prior to May 15, and we ask that you keep your options open to allow for completing registration and travel plans immediately following our decision about the meeting on May 15.

I realize you likely have travel restrictions in place, but I wanted to reach out to you to let you know our plans at this point. Please see the newsletter for any further details about WAEA that might be of interest.

Again, I hope you and yours are well.

Chris Bastian

President WAEA