This year’s Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) Annual Conference and Exhibition, scheduled to take place Sept. 20-24 in Wilmington, Delaware, has been canceled. In its place, CVSA will now offer a new week-long virtual conference, Sept. 21-25.
The 2020 CVSA Virtual Fall Conference will allow committees, programs and regions to meet online to conduct Alliance business in an effort to advance commercial motor vehicle safety efforts while complying with current government regulations and orders prohibiting the holding of large in-person events and taking into consideration the various health and safety challenges, and budget and travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The CVSA Board of Directors invoked Article VI of the CVSA Bylaws which states that the annual conference may be canceled for just cause by a majority vote of the board. The cause for the cancelation is due to limitations and restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The board voted unanimously on June 16, 2020, to cancel the 2020 CVSA Annual Conference and Exhibition. According to the bylaws, if the annual conference is canceled, the officers and committee members shall continue in their respective positions until the next succeeding annual conference and exhibition.
As a result, CVSA President Sgt. John Samis’ term will now end in September 2021, instead of September 2020. In turn, Capt. John Broers will become president in September 2021, and Maj. Chris Nordloh will ascend from secretary to vice president in September 2021 then president in September 2022. All terms for current region presidents and committee chairs that would have ended in September 2020 will now end in September 2021. View the full listing of all leadership members and their terms.
Since the traditional 2020 annual conference has been canceled and term expirations have been extended by a year, there will be no secretary vote this September. The next secretary vote will be in September 2021.
The cancelation of this year’s in-person annual conference will also affect future annual conference locations. In 2021, the annual conference will be held in Wilmington, Delaware, the home jurisdiction of Sgt. Samis who will be the departing Alliance president at that time. In 2022, the annual conference will be held in Rapid City, South Dakota (home jurisdiction of Capt. Broers), and in 2023, the annual conference will be held in Texas (Maj. Nordloh’s home jurisdiction). View the dates and locations of upcoming meetings and conferences through 2024.
The 2020 CVSA Virtual Fall Conference, the Alliance’s first all-virtual event, will take place Sept. 21-25 and will feature the same committee, region and program meetings CVSA members are used to in-person, but in an easy-to-use and engaging online environment featuring video collaboration along with other tools, such as live polling, easy access to agendas and other important documents, and much more.
Registration is now open for the 2020 CVSA Fall Virtual Conference and you can view the conference schedule online.