Cal-Lab 2022 Canceled

2022 Annual Meeting Cancellation

January 12, 2022

Dear Distinguished Members of Cal-Lab,

It is with a great deal of thought and a multitude of mixed feelings that the Cal-Lab Association Board of Directs has formally decided to postpone the 2022 meeting and move it to 2023 to coincide with the 2023 CDS meeting in Chicago.

This decision did not come easy…Cal-Lab has a strong meeting history where we never cancelled a meeting until 2021.  Here we are in 2022 and never dreamed that we would be in a situation again this year where we would have to consider a cancellation/postponement.  However, considering the health and welfare of all Cal-Lab participants,  the impact that the Covid pandemic still has in the Chicago area, followed most recently with a vaccine mandate for establishments/events serving food & beverage has made it impossible for our organization to feel even semi-comfortable that we could have a successful event. We feel reasonably sure that these circumstances will reduce our attendance by a minimum of 50% but more likely 70% based on information we have been receiving back from various sources. While we would love to have the flexibility to “wait it out” and see if situations improve, we realize that any improvement that would truly make a positive difference with the meeting being just a few weeks away is highly unlikely and that it is unfair to everyone trying to finalize travel arrangements to wait any longer for a decision.

The Cal-Lab board wants our members to know that we value your continued support through membership. To address some questions that are sure to come up…

• for those members that were benefactors in 2021 and received a certificate for an additional attendee at the 2022 meeting, that benefit is not lost…it will automatically roll to the 2023 year and we will not be issuing new certificates;
• while dues are not refundable, losing the benefit of one person attending the meeting for free and the CE associated with that is a concern to the Cal-Lab board . Therefore, the board wants you to know that they are working to offer our members as any additional attendees that you may have registered an online CE alternative in 2022. The details are not finalized yet but we will release more information to you as it becomes available;
• we will move forward and begin planning an exceptional meeting for 2023.

Respectfully yours,
Jeff Stronk
Cal-Lab Chair