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The BUSMVA Board met via conference call at 3 PM EST on 30 April 2020 to consider the 2020 Reunion, scheduled in September in Billings, MT.
The Board decided that given the situation and events that confront us, the reunion is canceled. Although the reunion is five months out, there is still too much unknown as to what the conditions will be in terms of air travel, social distance requirements for our banquets, meetings and planned events. Since the bulk of the membership and probably those attending would be in what has been classified as “most vulnerable” for exposure to the Covid-19 virus, the Board concluded, regrettably, that the optimal approach was to cancel. Delaying a decision any further would put the association liable to significant financial penalty for cancellation later.
Rich Dietrich, the BUSMVA Treasurer, will be refunding those who have prepaid for their registrations, and returning checks he has held but not deposited. There will be no financial penalty to any member for preregistering, and thank you to those who did. It gave the Board a gauge of the amount of interest in Billings, especially such that further discussions and negotiations will take place to assure that Billings is the site for a future reunion in the western States.
Email notification and post cards sent via USPS will inform the membership of this decision, along with this message posted on the BUSMVA web site and on Facebook.
In addition to the 2020 reunion cancellation, the Board approved moving the BUSMVA By-Laws vote and Treasurer’s election to our New Orleans Reunion in May 2021. The Treasurer was up for election this year, but the BUSMVA President will appoint him to continue serving from September 2020 till the New Orleans reunion.
The decision to cancel the reunion was not made lightly. Significant effort to organize and negotiate the various activities by Berry Williams, the Reunion Director, was done. The Board is grateful for his hard work. Had this pandemic not occurred, the Board was confident the Billings reunion would be a memorable one. But the uncertainty of the overall pandemic’s aftermath and the requirements on social distancing which may still be in place at that time were too much to bear.
Webmaster
Berlin U.S. Military Veterans Association, Inc.
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