Conference

CAML's response to Federation's decision

Dear CAML members, As promised, I am writing to inform you of CAML’s response to the Federation’s invitation to participate in the online Congress 2020. The CAML Board met this past Monday morning to discuss the pros and cons of meeting online. I am happy to inform you that the Board voted to support the Federation’s strategic maneuver, and CAML will therefore go forward with an online conference. We believe that meeting virtually will allow CAML members to come together in these challenging times and will ensure the continuation of scholarly communications in the field, something we take very seriously. We also hope that an online conference will allow more people to participate, especially those who could not have travelled to London for the in-person meeting. In making this decision, we acknowledged the potential challenges of virtual meetings. CAML is working with the Congress organizers to make them aware of our needs – both as presenters and attendees – and Congress has expressed their commitment to meeting those needs in the online environment. Given the March 27 deadline to provide CAML’s official response to the Federation, we cannot wait to sort out each and every detail about the logistics of the online meeting, but I assure you that we will do our best to ensure a positive experience for everyone. At the moment, I can share a few of our first steps: 1) We are in communication with the MusCan Board and understand that they will make their decision soon. Should they decide to go forward with an online meeting, we will do our best to align our programs, allowing for the shared sessions and break times. The MusCan President and I have also agreed to open all of our sessions to the members of both associations, a desire that has been communicated to the Federation. 2) We are contacting all of our presenters to ask whether they are willing to go forward with an online presentation. The Federation will provide training for presenters and session moderators in the weeks before Congress. 3) Should we manage to keep the same number of presentations we were going to have at the in-person meeting, we will likely need to prolong the duration of the conference from two full days of sessions to three shorter days to accommodate the various time zones across Canada. This will also allow for additional breaks that will help with online meeting fatigue. 4) The Federation is looking into a major discount for its portion of the registration fee and will announce its plans in the upcoming days. If a new fee structure is put in place, those who have already registered will receive refunds. For now, we do not foresee changing the CAML fee portion of the registration as the fees collected from members help with CAML Awards and provide general support for the ongoing work of the Association. It is important to mention that attending an online conference will be far cheaper than travelling to London, Ontario, given that members will not need to pay for travel and accommodations. Please stay tuned for upcoming updates and, as always, do not hesitate to contact me or one of the Board members with any questions or concerns. I wish you all the very best and I hope you will join CAML at Congress online this year! Sincerely, Houman Behzadi