Dear AMCI Membership,

Many of us have watched as our industry wrestles with when and how to meet safely again. When the AMC Institute staff team worked with our industry partners to suggest shifting the Annual Meeting to June 2021, I know that the members of the Board took a collective deep breath and agreed to move forward. At the time we needed to make that decision, a relative handful of U.S. residents had received the vaccine, with no clear path forward for mass vaccination.

Now, many of us can see the other side of COVID. With a remarkable effort towards vaccinations in our local communities, we have begun to cautiously evaluate opportunities for engagement beyond our pods, homes, and families.

I am so proud that the AMC Institute Annual Meeting will be the first meeting within the association community to convene in person. I am grateful to our staff, committee, and industry partners for ensuring the safety of our members. I know that for many of us, attending an in-person meeting will be incredibly helpful to our work with our client partners as we help them navigate this ongoing, new normal. I recognize that travel restrictions mean we will not be able to spend time with our members from outside the U.S., and that will give us an added gift in 2022 when we can all, truly, meet again as a global industry.

For those of you within the U.S., I encourage you to make the investment of time and resources to attend this meeting. The content is strong, the location is fantastic, and I am comforted by the commitment of so many to our safety. Our community has offered so much to many of us this year via the magic of technology, but I know we are eager to have sidebar chats and meet new people outside of the confines of a small box on our laptop screens.

Even as I scramble to trade in my slippers for some professional footwear, I am looking forward to seeing many of you in June in Orlando. I appreciate the many AMC community members who have stepped forward to attend and look forward to celebrating the resilience and success of our industry together in seven weeks.

Warmest regards,

Erin Fuller, FASAE, MPA, CAE
President, MCI USA