z AMERICAS REGION
IFATCA THANKS JAMAICA 2021 CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS z BY THOM METZGER, NATCA, EDITOR OF THE CONTROLLER MAGAZINE Once again, IFATCA’s Executive Board has needed to make a difficult decision regarding its planned annual conference. In coordination with the Jamaican Organising Committee (OC), the IFATCA Executive Board has reviewed whether the conference could be held in May, as planned. That review determined – despite the great news of COVID-19 vaccines starting to be administered around the world – that leading global health authorities have not relaxed, social distancing and masking requirements, quarantine restrictions, etc. That reality means a lot of uncertainty. We all know from our professional lives, that the impact of COVID on international travel remains huge. The risks associated with holding a large international meeting with these circumstances would be too great for the Jamaican OC, IFATCA’s Member Associations (MAs), and our Federation to commit significant financial and other resources at this time.
As a result, last week, the IFATCA Executive Board communicated with the Federation’s MAs, explaining that the 2021 Annual Conference planned to be held in Jamaica cannot and will not take place. In this letter to MAs, the Executive Board said it believes a virtual meeting is required, so the Federation can continue to function. A small working group – chaired by IFATCA’s Deputy President Helena Sjöström – is currently working on a framework for such a meeting. The Executive Board tentatively anticipates that this event will be held in the same week that the physical meeting was planned (24-28 May). The IFATCA leadership will release further details regarding this virtual event as soon as possible. In the aforementioned letter to MAs, IFATCA’s leaders expressed their great thanks to the MA and OC in Jamaica. It said, “We would like to sincerely thank our Jamaican Mem-
ber Association and its organizing committee for the enthusiasm, time, and effort they have invested in planning the event.” About this decision, Sjöström shared the feelings felt by others when she stated, “We are frustrated by this continuing pandemic and disappointed by this necessary decision. We have no doubt that the Jamaica OC and MA would have done a great job welcoming all IFATCA MAs to their beautiful country. We all look forward to meeting face-to-face, as soon as it will be safe to do so. Let us hope that the crisis will be largely mitigated by the second half of 2021 and that we will be able to meet each other once again during the regional meetings.” y editor@ifatca.org
Photo: Thom Metzger (NATCA/IFATCA)
z Photos: (left) The IFATCA Member Association from Jamaica made their presentation about the 2021 Annual Conference at last fact-to-face annual conference in May 2019. (right) Event poster for the cancelled conference.
THE CONTROLLER
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