Dear ACOMES colleagues,

We hope you are all safe and healthy in these days with the Corona-virus. 

The Corona-crisis is impacting us all, with measures taken in similar style by national governments all around the world. This restricts us in moving in our countries, let alone between countries.  And all signs are that measures will stay in place for months to come, creating a new “1.5 meter society”. There is currently no clear path in most parts of the world when measures will be relaxed.

In that context we have decided to cancel the ACOMES meeting this September in Amsterdam. A meeting with 1.5 meter distance restrictions still in place, will make it impossible to organize a full physical meeting. The Corona-measures will have a severe impact on the number of people that can attend (limited by the meeting room dimensions), as well as on the ability of the Dutch organization to offer an attractive program. Hence we do not believe that an alternative program makes sense. 

Please be advised that all participants that already booked a room in Hotel Jakarta Amsterdam should cancel their room free of charge before June 5th 2020.

But with trust that the world will move into a more normal state of interaction, we agreed to plan for an ACOMES meeting for 2021 in Amsterdam from 5 to 8 September. 

In addition we would like to organize a short virtual ACOMES meeting this year in September 2020. This will allow us to stay in touch and to take stock of the most pressing issues that we as crisis organizations are dealing with. The idea is to set up a 1-2 hour videoconference midday Central European Time. We acknowledge the fact that this timing will be late for the colleagues in the East and early for those in the West, but hope those agencies will still be able to attend. We are interested to get your input on ideas/topics for the videoconferencing program; please revert to acomes@ospa.ee. More information about this virtual ACOMES meeting will be shared in coming months.

We wish you courage and perseverance to weather the current crisis, in good health and high spirits! 

Kind regards,

Priit Enok

Gertjan ten Broeke