my family and I will be in Amelia island in October, whether or not migration is there. Consider this a confirmation of registration. And if the migration doesn’t happen, well it looks like I can find something to do!
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The potential Republican Convention move to Jacksonville Could impact Migration vis a vis COVID. If it is held a la Trump, social distancing will be nil and about a month down the line we would see an increase in cases in the area.
My personal belief at this time is that if the move and a no-social-distancing event does become a reality it diminishes my willingness to attend this year.
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There will be no Trump bump, just as there is no riot bump. Rest easy…
I hope you are correct but I will wait for the data.
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So you would attend a mass gathering, as long as there are no other mass gatherings prior to this mass gathering. Have you been watching the news?
We will have boat loads of data available well before any political convention.
Will we still need social distancing by October? Who knows, but the more exposure events we have close to the venue the more likely we will. As others have said, a socially distant Migration would be challenging and not as much fun.
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Wife and I have booked our room ! Looking forward to our first Migration!
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DATA!!! YOU WANT DATA? Back at the Facebook Migration site, the excitement is heating up. We now have 1,464 followers expressing interest. That’s 3 times as many participants as we had at M-17 and we are still, almost 4 months out.
Please make your hotel reservations now as the discounted rooms are limited. We’ll be having a unique and special spouse event as well.
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Where is the copa registration link?
Rhonda-
The link is not live yet. The Migration organizers are working through the challenges imposed by the pandemic and we all hope to see the event registration page open soon!
Soon, but in the interim, you can register for your hotel room; You can check out the island; you can plan your route and share it with others
Hey Ray,
Looks like the NBAA-BACE canceled their event in Orlando due to COVID-19 concerns. That event is the same week as the Migration.
“The cancellation is based on clear guidance from public health officials at all levels of government addressing the unique, complex COVID-19 related challenges associated with large indoor venues. For example, the Florida Department of Health has recently issued an advisory recommending that individuals avoid participation in gatherings of more than 50 people.”
I missed this thread when it first came along, but for whatever it’s worth, I thought I would chime in with my own thoughts on the subject.
I’m still considering attending, but it’s very much a wait and see situation for me, especially as it requires a cross-country trip that I likely won’t be able to do in my own plane. Given the recent upward spike in infection rates, I’d place the odds on my feeling comfortable to attend at 50% or less. Which makes me very sad, since this is my first year of ownership, and I’ve been really looking forward to Migration.
Perhaps things will improve, but I’m bothered by Hans’s use of the “cooler heads prevail” phrase. I may be misinterpreting his intentions here, but what would make the event an absolute no-go for me is if there is a mask recommendation in effect at the time, but people are not following it.
Michael-
Perhaps that was a poor choice of words, I am in no way suggesting we dissent form any safety recommendations nor state and local ordinances, what I meant to convey was if we are still obligated to observe social distancing guidelines, I have little enthusiasm to attend a social gathering.
I make my living in the hospitality industry, my most sincere desire to see Migration succeed is not merely born of my eagerness to spend time with like minded people talking about airplanes, but also the signaling of a recovery in my business sector.
I am not optimistic, I would like nothing more than to be proven wrong!
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For what is is worth, I am part of planning for several different entities in different fields and especially based on recent trends none of them are expecting to any hold large in-person events until next year at the soonest.
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Hans, thanks for clarifying. Yes, I think we are in agreement here. For me, it’s a twofold issue, the more I think about it:
- If we are all wearing masks and staying distant, the character of the event is altered.
- Perhaps more importantly for me, if we are still at a stage where these measures are necessary, I personally wouldn’t feel all that comfortable spending a lot of time indoors with a bunch of other people, even though we’d all be wearing masks. Based on everything I’ve read lately, it seems that indoor environments are the biggest culprits in transmission, and time of exposure is an important factor as well. So, all day indoors with a big group?
So, I’m still in the “I’ll wait and see how things are shaping up closer to the event” camp, but I also understand that with any event, the organizers have to make the go/no-go decision at some point in advance. We saw this with AirVenture among other events.
I’m facing a similar decision myself within the next couple of weeks — I have to decide by the middle of this month whether my annual trip with my mother to Jackson Hole is happening, because that’s the cutoff for receiving a refund if we cancel our reservations. At this point, it’s not looking likely. 
I think we’d be fine in Jackson itself, but actually getting there may be too high risk for her.
I have some updates as to what is happening with Migration at this current Point in time.
We have negotiated with the Hotel to waive any and all Guarantees we have made for 2020.
Meaning COPA is not on the hook financially this year for any Slippage of the numbers regardless of COVID and other factors. Getting this Financial/Legal monkey off our back has been my primary COPA focus the past few months.
With this agreement in hand, Countersigned by the hotel, I feel comfortable moving forward.
I plan to Open Registration Shortly. In fact it is open now:
https://na.eventscloud.com/migration2020
However this event is going to have a number of things to Note:
- We must hit a magic number of registrations to make it “worth” holding the event. If we fall below that number, it just does not make sense to continue with the event. I am putting a deadline of July 18th on meeting this threshold.
- The BOD may cancel the event at any time. (With Full refund)
- The Program will look and feel different than years past, and will be subject to change at anytime.
- Social Distancing Measures, including but not Limited to Face-coverings, temperature readings, Limited table size, etc must be assumed in use during the event.
- Size of the event may be limited to accommodate Social Distancing Requirements. Requiring us to cancel some registrations at some point.
- Many vendors have/will opt out in attending this year.
- Number of Speakers etc will change according to total numbers.
- We will Live steam the Annual Meeting regardless of event being held or not
- Everyone will be able to cancel and receive a Refund, Roll over to 2021, or Donate their Registration fee to the COPA SEF 501©3 up until a certain point in time prior to the event.
I will be posting a separate announcement topic, as well as sending an email the membership explaining things. Please let me know if there are any questions with regard to this and will do my best to answer them, and then include those in the Announcement email.
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All:
I’ll be there even if your not. There is nothing that can or will change between now and Migration. Cases are up, which should be expected, after opening up, youth doing the things youth do which is why we don’t call them adults and recent protests, burning looting and murder without social distancing, which will subside due to the knee jerk reaction. Deaths remain flat and are primarily those who have comorbidity issues. So Covid will still be around and it will be a different Migration, but in my view a different Migration is better than no Migration. I can connect with friends or make new friends or learn things, or enjoy a new place without being within six feet of an other human being. I trust COPA members to use what has been demonstrated to be effective mitigation procedures before coming, not coming if your sick and of course if you have pre-existing medical conditions don’t come. If your healthy, practice safe Covid behavior I see no reason not to go. The point is nothing is going to change so you can decide right now, so decide. This is a go no go decision and we know the forecast. Give the committee the information they need to structure the program or everyone just waits for some additional information that is not going to come, which means it won’t happen.
Gil
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One consideration other organizations I am involved with is liability.
Does COPA have insurance that would cover a COVID related death as a result of a gathering?
The COPA demographic is not exactly at the low risk end of the spectrum.
Our attorney at another organization advised a waiver would likely not be enforceable in this situation.
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Jack,
This is an excellent question, One I don’t have the answer to.
The topic of a waiver has been discussed, as has the enforceability question.
I encourage others to keep asking questions like this.
I have opened Registration to get a feel of the current appetite for the event.