2021 Convention
December 21, 2020 Update:
Dear Sisters,
I hope that you and your families are staying safe and well.
As announced at the November Board of Representatives meeting with the chapter presidents on November 8th, 2020, the sorority and fraternity had scheduled Convention 2021 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Boston North Shore from April 9th-11th. This would be contingent upon the climate that the pandemic created for in-person gatherings.
At the annual Fall Board meeting with the fraternity, the team discussed the options we had moving forward as well as the pros and cons of each option. The first option would be an in-person meeting. The idea of having an in-person meeting would be ideal, however; not knowing what the gathering limits will be in April and potentially having to change the entire format of the meeting due to the state’s restrictions could become unmanageable. When determining what a hybrid option would look like, it was determined that both organizations could host a business meeting and nothing beyond that. In addition to not being able to have all the stakeholders in one room, there would be additional costs (we would be paying the hotel plus new technology to host a hybrid meeting, such as, a Meeting Owl) and a potential increase in technological issues that could negatively alter someone’s online experience.
Lastly, we assessed the pros and cons of a virtual meeting. While we all agreed the option is not ideal (due to us not meeting in-person last year and having zero in-person meetings in 2020), we can guarantee everyone’s health and safety while having some additional time to explore how we can add more aspects of Convention into this virtual setting. The major con of this decision would be the financial impact.
The fraternity and sorority‘s financial responsibility for the event would be covered by the force majeure clause in our 2021 contract with the hotel if we could not host the meeting due to the state’s gathering limits. However, the timing of this would be determined by the hotel, which could cause extreme planning issues (similar to the ones we experienced last year). We proactively reached out to the hotel to get an understanding of how they are approaching planned 2020/2021 events that they cannot host and asked to see if they would be able to accommodate our group in 2022. Luckily, we were able to use the deposits we already made to hold the 2022 date.
This does mean that we did make the tough decision to move our Convention 2021 celebration to a virtual format. The fraternity and sorority will plan independently and release more updates on what is to come in the new year. In addition to rolling out a virtual plan for Convention 2021, the sorority’s National Board will also be assessing our financials in the new year to see if we can offer another dues reduction for the spring semester. We appreciate your understanding.
In Kappa,
Amanda Cronin
President, Kappa Delta Phi National Affiliated Sorority