The executive board has decided to cancel the in-person meeting and will be developing a plan to meet online. As you are aware, colleges and universities across the state have begun issuing their decisions regarding 2020-2021 budgets and many, if not all, include dramatic cuts to travel. Furthermore, we cannot predict the nature of the pandemic in November and the health and wellbeing of the GPSA community is important. I have been in contact with our liaison and the hotel has agreed to shift our 2020 contract to 2021.

The plan, as of now, is to hold the online conference Nov. 11-13 as scheduled. The number of days needed will depend on the number of panels scheduled which will be determined by the number of proposals received. The online conference will be conducted using either Zoom or Microsoft Teams (specific details will be released closer to November). The goal is to have virtual panels set up with 4-5 presenters, a chair, and a discussant. Audience participation is encouraged. The executive board will meet prior to the conference and we plan on holding a general body meeting at the end of the conference on Nov. 13 at 12:30 p.m. (which would have been our scheduled meeting time). We strongly encourage student participation and hope that the virtual format makes this more accessible for students, especially from schools that typically lack travel funds for student research. Paper, panel, and roundtable proposals will follow the guidelines outlined on the website.

Finally, awards will be provided, and framed awards will be mailed to the winners. Papers presented at this year’s conference will be eligible for submission to Questions in Politics.

Please feel free to email me with any questions, comments, concerns, and/or suggestions. We certainly hate that we will not be able to see you Savannah but hope you will join us online in November.

Sincerely,

Keith E. Lee Jr.

GPSA President