January 25, 2021
Dear Fellow Addicts;
After several months of discussion with the Austin hotel, and given the status of the continuing Covid-19 pandemic and the restrictions it places on activities, the Austin host committee advised the World Service Board of Trustees that a 2021 convention was unlikely to succeed. The WSBT discussed this and agreed. Given the realities of members’ travel and other planning needed for the event, both parties felt that we could not delay our decision further, in the hopes that things would change.
The hotel has been very accommodating and understanding through this entire year and they remain so. They have offered C.A. a contract amendment that would hold terms steady, for an event over the Memorial Day weekend in 2022. The Austin committee and the Board of Trustees have agreed with this plan and hope to see everyone in 2022 for a celebration of recovery, in recovery.
The convention originally planned for 2022 in New York has been cancelled. The contract we had with the New York hotel was withdrawn last year by mutual agreement, and the hotel itself has been closed throughout the pandemic making further planning or negotiations regarding a 2022 event impossible. At this late date, the WSBT determined that it would be a great risk for the Fellowship to attempt to quickly mount a New York convention in a new hotel, and the best decision was to move the (now long- planned) Austin convention to 2022 and then continue with Atlanta in 2023 and Holland in 2024. Our deepest apologies to the New York host committee and the New York fellowship and we invite them to bid again for a future convention year. This was not . their fault.
We continue planning for Conference 2021 and assure our membership that a Conference will be held. The Conference committee is well along in making a fallback plan for a virtual Conference, but we would all strongly prefer to hold it face-to-face in Los Angeles in September as planned. All we can do is the footwork, and God will reveal the results.
Be safe
Your World Service Board of Trustees