The global coronavirus pandemic has impacted nearly every aspect of our personal and professional lives. Of course, it has also impacted IAAPA and our industry in significant ways.

These times are truly unprecedented and have presented challenges and opportunities our association has never encountered before. We are relying on the IAAPA board and our committees for strategic guidance and advice as the IAAPA team makes the necessary adjustments to our plans, products, and approach. Our dedicated IAAPA volunteers have spent countless hours on conference calls, replying to emails and text messages at all hours of the night and day, reviewing plans, evaluating financial models, and participating in virtual meetings for IAAPA while trying to manage their own lives and businesses at the same time. We are very grateful for their support and the time they have devoted to helping IAAPA through these challenging times.

The good news is we are accomplishing a great deal. The bad news is many of our original plans and visions for 2020 have been altered by COVID-19.

Given the unusual nature of the year, several members suggested we extend board and committee terms for one year so the 2020 IAAPA board and committees members remain in place for 2020 and 2021. Doing so would accomplish the following:

1. Provide much-needed stability for the association during these unprecedented times. This is critically important as we believe the effects of the pandemic will impact IAAPA throughout the rest of 2020 and into 2021.
2. Allow the board and committees to reevaluate their 2020 work plans and refocus on key initiatives in 2021 that they are not able to address this year.
3. Help the IAAPA team focus on assisting members through the pandemic rather than spending time recruiting and orienting new board and committee members.

We have considered this carefully, reviewed it with our legal counsel, and discussed it with the IAAPA Governance and Executive/Finance Committees. We concluded extending board and committee member terms would provide the support and stability we need and presented this recommendation to the IAAPA Board of Directors. They approved this plan during their meeting on May 22.

We understand volunteering for IAAPA is a big commitment of time and energy. In the next several months, we will work with the board and contact committee members to see if they are willing and able to serve through 2021. If someone is not able to continue in their role, we will fill any open positions through our traditional processes.

We plan to resume our normal procedures for selecting board and committee volunteers in the summer of 2021 for 2022.

In the meantime, we are always seeking volunteers. A list of volunteer opportunities within IAAPA is available here on our website. We appreciate your on-going commitment and support during these unprecedented times. If you need any assistance from IAAPA, please reach out and let us know.

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