PSATS 2021 Annual Educational Conference

Posted on March 5, 2021 |

Well, here we are…a year into a pandemic following Governor Wolf’s restrictions to “flatten the curve” and “slow the spread”. Although we have made some great progress and now have several vaccines, PSATS is faced with making another decision about our Annual Conference in April in Hershey.

While there is good news … infection rates are falling, and hospitalizations, county positivity rates, ventilator usage, and even deaths are on the decline, Pennsylvania’s vaccine rollout has been one of the slowest in the country. We had anticipated one-third of PA’s population being vaccinated by the end of March, but we are currently at only about 1 million fully vaccinated. The governor’s restrictions on crowd capacity at events are still oppressively low, yet they remain in place.

As a result, the Executive Board has decided to cancel the PSATS Conference again this year for no other reason than the numbers. Based on the state’s restrictions and Hershey’s safety guidelines, there wasn’t much of a choice…..the numbers are just plain stacked against us.

Although we had more than 3,000 participants signed up for the conference, including delegates, guests, exhibitors, and sponsors, and there was great enthusiasm building for the conference, the governor’s gathering size restrictions are too low to allow PSATS to hold an event to accommodate your demand for education and networking.

The good news is, we’re moving on to Plan B. The goal is to give you some of the conference experience but in slightly different ways.

Education is a big draw so, for starters, a number of interactive workshops will be presented virtually in April and May.
Networking, another great feature, will be the focus of multiple virtual town hall-style sessions for population groups, secretaries and managers, county associations, and others.
Because we fully expect event restrictions to be gone by fall, PSATS will host a one-day business meeting in Hershey in mid-October to set policy, elect officers, and provide a legislative update.
The night before, we will celebrate the Association’s milestone 100th birthday with a Centennial Celebration Dinner, sponsored by the PA Leadership Institute, but there will not be an exhibit show this year.

Registrations and refunds for attendees, exhibitors, and sponsors: More information about refunds and new registrations will be released soon so watch your inbox for The Insider, our Tuesday e-newsletter for conference attendees. Also, look for updates in TVN and the Morning News and at conference.psats.org. All hotel reservations for April will automatically be canceled, and we will share more information about other opportunities for our Centennial Celebration Dinner and Commemorative Centennial Book soon.