Managing the Difficulties of 2020

Published on: 28-07-2020

Photo by Adam Nieścioruk on Unsplash.com

July 27, 2020

As we are now in the second half of 2020, the world has been facing the COVID-19 pandemic for most (if not all) of the past six months. I have heard from some of you about the impact that the virus has had on you personally: some have been infected themselves, others have had family members impacted, and some have lost family or friends. My well wishes go out to all. Please continue to “play it safe” and do not let your guard down because you desire to get back to the way things used to be.

The TIAFT Board has been working over the past few months to resolve questions related to the impact that COVID has had on our annual conferences. We now can report how future meetings have been rescheduled:

2021: Cape Town, South Africa (October 24 – 28, 2021)
2022: Versailles, France (September 5 – 8, 2022) – Joint Meeting with the French Society of Analytical Toxicology (SFTA)
2023: Rome, Italy (late August 2023)
2024: Auckland, New Zealand (dates to be determined) – Joint Meeting with Forensic and Clinical Toxicology Association (FACTA)
2025: St. Gallen, Switzerland (dates to be determined)

As I explained in my last message, a lot of factors went into the decisions related to the rescheduling of these meetings. I encourage you to re-read that message if you would like more insight into our thought process.

The Board is also evaluating a few other activities. First, we are planning to have some online training available for our members before the end of the year. A team is working to establish topics and the structure of the training. Expect to hear more about this in the next month or so. Second, we will hold a virtual meeting with our Regional Representatives in September to ensure that they are fully aware of the Board’s activities so they can help address any questions or concerns that develop out of their countries. Finally, with the Communications Committee, we are working to improve our website: both the public facing side, as well as the Members Only side. We hope to be able to share some of the improvements in the next few months. Despite the virus, we are continuing to maintain the value in your TIAFT membership.

With that, I wish to “thank you” for continuing to support TIAFT. If you have any questions, compliments, or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us at the info@tiaft.org email address.

Marc LeBeau, PhD
President, TIAFT