Dear Earth educator,
We wanted to update you about our plans for the 2020 Earth Educators' Rendezvous, and we thank you for your patience as we have worked to respond to the dynamic situation. Last week, Stanford cancelled all in-person gatherings on its campus this summer. The contingency planning group had already been considering this possibility, and Stanford's decision allowed us to put our efforts into understanding if we could uphold our standards for high-quality professional development in an online format.
We believe we can, and we are therefore working to recreate the 2020 Earth Educators' Rendezvous as an online event. While we are disappointed to miss the rich face-to-face interactions, we are excited for the opportunities that an online event brings, including expanding access to our programs while also acknowledging the challenges we are all facing during this time.
Here's what we can tell you about the online Rendezvous:
- The meeting will take place on the same days as the face-to-face meeting was scheduled: July 13-17, 2020.
- The overall structure of the program will remain the same, with a mix of multi-day (M-W and Thu-Fr) workshops with synchronous and asynchronous aspects, shorter afternoon mini-workshops, roundtable discussions, plenaries, and a contributed program.
- The details of the program, including the exact timing for events, are forthcoming, and we are working to maximize synchronous times that are appropriate across multiple time zones.
- Workshop leaders have been contacted and will be supported in transitioning their in-person activities to the online setting.
- We've reduced the registration fees, while maintaining the discount for NAGT members and the multi-day discount (if you register for four days, the fifth day is free).
We aim to have the revised program and new registration available on the website by early May, and will alert you as soon as that is available.
If you have already registered, NAGT will issue you a full refund by Friday, April 24, 2020, and you will be able to re-register at the new rate once the new program goes live. If you prefer to donate your registration fees to NAGT rather than receive a refund, please email Amy Collette (acollette@carleton.edu) by Wednesday, April 22, 2020. If you choose this option, you will receive a receipt for tax purposes.
If you submitted an abstract to the contributed program, you'll receive additional information before the program goes live.
We look forward to welcoming you to this new virtual Rendezvous!
Sincerely,
Anne Egger
On behalf of the Contingency Planning Committee