On October 3, 2020, the NAFUSA Board of Directors met virtually via a Zoom call, led by President Paul Coggins. Rich Rossman reported on the finances, which remain strong, despite the cancellation of the annual meeting due to Covid 19 concerns. The 18 sponsors who had advanced funds for the 2020 conference planned for New York refused our offer of rebates, giving us sufficient funds for the year and a head start for 2021. These sponsors were told their sponsorships would be good for 2020 and 2021 without the  expectation of additional contributions for 2021. Although we have fewer sponsors than normal, we are hopeful that the longstanding sponsors who did not participate this year will return as soon as pandemic concerns stabilize.

Lisa Rafferty reported that she was able to obtain full refunds for the deposits paid to the hotels for the cancelled 2020 board meeting (the Four Seasons in Austin) and conference (the Hilton in New York). Lisa also advised the board that 54 members have yet to pay dues this year, which is much higher than usual. She speculates that the work-from-home during the Covid crisis may have caused some members to overlook their dues this year. If dues are not paid by December 31, members become inactive and are removed from the member directory. They will, however, remain on the newsletter subscription list with hope that they stay in touch and consider rejoining.

Jack Selden reported that we currently have 312 active members, including five Trump appointees who have recently joined.

Plans were made for NAFUSA’s first webinar, to be held later in the month.

The board then held a lengthy discussion of public position guidelines. Paul Coggins raised the question on how the Board should go about considering proposals for the Board to issue public statements on current issues. Such proposals are fairly rare, and Board statements are much rarer, with the last two being one on the U.S. Attorney firings in 2007 and one this summer on the killing of George Floyd. The Board agreed to design a process for Board statements without any membership approval requirement, and to maintain the current practice of requiring a supermajority (75%) of the Board before approving a Board statement. The Floyd statement was approved unanimously.

Tentatively the Board plans to meet in the spring of 2021 in Austin, Texas and the conference in the fall in New York City. The 2022 conference will likely be held in Washington, DC and the 2023 conference in San Francisco or Los Angeles.