2020 NCMC Annual Conference
Rocky Mount, NC || March 29-30

CANCELED
See COVID-19 Update Below

Dear Conference Attendees, Vendors, Supporters, and Friends of NCMC,

After careful consideration and given the unfolding outbreak of COVID-19, the North Carolina Museums Council (NCMC) board has concluded that the NCMC Annual Meeting in Rocky Mount, NC cannot go on as planned. This decision, as participants surely understand, was not made lightly. We made this decision with the health and physical safety of our attendees, volunteers, and vendors foremost in our minds.

Here is the latest information around the conference:

1. We will be working with the Local Arrangements Committee to re-schedule the conference for 2021 in Rocky Mount. As we firm up our plans, we will communicate that information as soon as we can.
2. We are working with the host hotel to put a process in place for conference attendees to cancel their hotel reservations. We will communicate that information just as soon as possible.
3. We are following up with presenters via a separate email that will come from our Professional Development Chairperson, Adrienne Nirdé.
4. The decision carries with it significant financial consequences for NCMC, some of which will be discussed below. We will be considering the implications of a partial refund policy in the coming weeks. No decision can be made about refunds until the total financial impacts of this decision can be assessed. We ask that you be patient as we work through it.
5. We are following up with vendors via a separate email that will come from our Annual Meetings Chairperson, Alicyn Weidrich.

We want to share with you some of the specific consequences and implications of this decision for NCMC. Cancelation at this point has real financial implications for NCMC. In addition to lost revenues, we face substantial penalties associated with contractual obligations to our partners. These costs will necessitate hard decisions concerning our endowment and operating budget, as well as the assumption of debt, all of which will have consequences for NCMC moving forward. The NCMC board chose to cancel the conference because, despite the severity of the financial consequences, the health and well-being of our conference participants and the city of Rocky Mount outweighed these concerns. We ask that you  bear with us as the impacts of the cancelation become clearer and we consider how best to ensure the financial health of NCMC. The program and local arrangements committees approached their work with creativity, enthusiasm, and skill, as they crafted an engaging program for this year’s conference.

We will all miss the opportunity to reconnect with friends and colleagues and to make new ones. We recognize that many of you will have questions. Please bear with us as we go through this process. We hope to address your questions and concerns in forthcoming communication.

Yours in museums,

Scott Warren

Scott Warren
President
North Carolina Museums Council