April 18, 2020
For Immediate distribution
Dear NSS Friends,
After much listening, discussion, careful consideration, and in accordance with federal, state, and local recommendations, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the 2020 NSS Convention. Given the painful reality of COVID-19, one of the greatest global challenges of our lifetimes, we believe this is the right thing to do.
Yes, we are heartbroken. We know you are too. However, public health and the well-being of our members, our staff, and our neighbors in the Elkins, West Virginia, community are our highest priorities.
This decision requires a complete change in logistics. To those of you who preregistered—in the coming weeks, we will be establishing the mechanisms needed to process refunds. You will be contacted individually with your options to proceed.
We are also considering available options for conducting some elements of convention in some virtual space. In the interim, we ask your patience as we thought it best to inform everyone of this development sooner rather than later.
To the convention staff—we give our full sincere thanks for all the efforts you made. It’s difficult times like these that we truly realize what a great group of caving friends we have. And we look forward to working with you in the future. We are now initiating plans to move the 2020 West Virginia Convention to 2023 and moving forward with the 2021 convention in Weed, California.
Until we can once more crawl a muddy crawl or party around a bonfire—stay smart, stay safe, stay healthy.
Rich Geisler and Meredith Weberg
NSS 2020 Convention Co-Chairs
Katherine “Kat” Crispin, Ph.D.
NSS Administrative Vice President
Geary Schindel
NSS President
Nathan Farrar
NSS Chair of the Directorate