The Board of Directors, at their recent meeting, authorized the President to initiate cancellation procedures of the Jacksonville Convention. Based on this authorization, the President has issued the following advice.
With the unforeseeable emergence of the coronavirus, plus government regulations issued by the state of Florida, it became abundantly clear that the purpose of our convention, and the entire convention experience anticipated for Jacksonville, had become frustrated and therefore impossible to realize due to the situation being unsafe and untenable. This is supported by the fact that the average age of our membership is in the high risk, “vulnerable population” group and the Social Distancing standards imposed by the new, restrictive government regulations making most of our activities and tours impossible to conduct safely and with the same purpose of achieving close camaraderie during a social activity.
Further, there is an additional concern for the safety and well-being of our members who must travel by airline to reach Jacksonville. Additionally, many of our members from highly infected areas would not be able to attend. All of the new developments present a risk to our members that is not acceptable to TCA’s Board of Directors and cannot be condoned as a normal convention experience anticipated when planning for our 2020 event.
For all of the reasons stated above, the convention in Jacksonville has been cancelled as it is impossible to have the same experience as we anticipated when plans were made for our 2020 convention.
I have thus sent the Hyatt hotel in Jacksonville a letter of cancellation.
For those of you who have already registered, a full refund will be credited to your credit card. As noted in the current issue of the Headquarters News, if you would like to donate all or a portion of your refund to the TCA to help with our convention expenses, you are welcome to do so. You will receive a letter noting the amount of your donation for you to use for your tax purposes.
A note to our members who joined from the Department 56. Part of your registration covered either your full year or six month membership in the TCA. Unfortunately, we cannot refund that part of your payment. And we all hope you will stay with us to share our joint hobbies.
If you have made reservations at the hotel, you may wish to cancel them. The hotel is accepting no fee cancellations through the end of June.
I know I was looking forward to a wonderful Jacksonville convention and am terribly disappointed in its cancellation as is Steve Johnson, Southern Division President, and all of his convention team. For me, attending our annual convention is one of the highlights of my year.
Peter Atonna
President
