From the Executive Director

by Michelle Czosek, CAE

See you in Scottsdale!

It’s hard to believe that over one year ago, COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic. It was March 11, 2020 when the World Health Organization made this declaration. Around the world we started shutting down and living much differently than we were used to.

I remember working with the NAFA Board of Directors to cancel the 2020 Technical Seminar and thinking it would be fine because we would all be seeing each other in November for the 2020 Annual Convention. Then we had to make the difficult decision to cancel that, as well.

On behalf of the Board and staff, I again want to thank everyone for their support as we navigated a different and often difficult year.

I’m thrilled to be writing this column with an in-person meeting on the horizon and want to assure our members that attendee safety is of the utmost importance. The decision to proceed in this direction was not taken lightly and we all understand that this meeting will look different from previous years.

Working with the hotel management, we are planning for a socially distanced meeting and have made the decision that the entire meeting will be deemed “mask mandatory.” This masking includes our time in the meeting room and at networking activities when not actively eating or drinking. You will also be asked to indicate that you understand all our meeting guidelines in the form of a Code of Conduct statement when you go through the registration process.

While we normally provide three half-days of content and networking, we have reduced the program to two days. We still offer the same amount of education programming, have time with our sponsors tabletop displays, and hold our welcome reception. We will seat fewer people at our meeting room tables, schedule longer breaks and take advantage of the outside space available at our hotel.

The meeting will conclude with the NAFA Foundation Golf Tournament on the afternoon ofday two. I hope you’ll stay to join this fun opportunity for additional networking while supporting the Foundation!

Recognizing that not everyone is a position to travel currently we are offering a virtual component to the meeting. Of course, I recommend if possible, you attend in person to get the full value of the event and take advantage of the opportunity to network with your peers.

As always, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me or any board member if you have questions, comments or ideas for resources that we can provide to our community.

Although we will have to maintain our distance and look for a smize (smile with our eyes) instead of the smiles and hugs we are all used to, I look forward to seeing everyone in Scottsdale! It’s been a long time! ■

Take care,

Michelle Czosek, CAE

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