With Covid-19 having brought the nation to a virtual standstill, the NAFUSA board of directors was forced to cancel their Spring board meeting in Austin, Texas. Instead, President Paul Coggins led the board via Zoom with it’s first virtual meeting on April 18, 2020. After reviewing the current state of the nation’s health and economic concerns, it became clear that holding our annual conference in New York City on September 30-October 2 would be impossible. Therefore, by an unanimous vote, the board decided to postpone this year’s conference and attempt to reschedule in New York in the fall of 2021.

Discussions have begun with the New York Hilton Midtown, which was planned to be the situs of this year’s conference, to schedule new dates in 2021. We also hope that the speakers we have lined up so far will join us in 2021. They include Ted Olson, Neal Katyal, Bob Fiske, Ken Starr, Charlie Savage, Chuck Rosenberg, Jay Stephens and Larry Thompson. The planning committee was also charged by the board to consider organizing a webinar in the fall, hopefully with CLE credits.

NAFUSA will offer our sponsors a choice of taking a refund of their 2020 contribututions or else carrying contributions over to the 2021 conference. Those who carry over their contributions will be listed as 2020 and 2021 sponsors. Any additional sponsors who join in 2020 will also receive the benefit of being listed for both years. Guidepost Solutions has already committed to continue as the sponsor of the opening reception in New York in 2021.

The board also agreed unanimously to recommend to the membership at large that the current slate of officers and directors be frozen through the annual conference in 2021.