Dear AHCJ members,
AHCJ staff have been monitoring the emergence and spread of the Delta variant closely over the last few weeks. With the guidance of the board of directors, we have made the difficult decision to once again postpone our in-person annual conference scheduled for October 28-31 in Austin. While we were planning to offer some conference sessions virtually, recent COVID-19 developments have made it unwise to ask our members to travel for an in-person meeting.
A little over a month ago we were optimistic about vaccinations and excited to gather in person, and we had great planning meetings on-site in Austin just a few weeks ago. We are still committed to bringing the annual conference to Austin and are working hard to find appropriate dates to gather in 2022.
Meanwhile, we will begin to plan a virtual training event and meeting for this fall, just as we did in 2020. In the weeks ahead, we will be working with the board of directors and others to choose the most timely and compelling topics for this autumn summit. Although not a replacement for a full-fledged conference, we will make it as informative as possible and create a space for membership interaction.
Our staff has never stopped working to make the Austin conference happen, and once we have secured new dates we will keep building the momentum. Some of you were already working diligently to put together terrific panels for the conference. We truly appreciate those efforts and will be in touch with you soon with more details and next steps.
If you have already registered, an AHCJ staff member will be reaching out to help issue registration refunds and bank your travel credits for the 2022 conference. Please be patient as we work to once again unwind the planning that has taken place to this point.
Thank you for your membership and ongoing support!
