Dear OTC Colleagues,

The OTC Executive Board typically meets a few times each semester to conduct business and to plan for the annual conference.  Due to travel restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we met virtually yesterday through the gift of technology.

As you might imagine, our primary discussion was the feasibility of hosting the annual conference in light of COVID-19 concerns.  In addition to being an opportunity for OTC members to learn and network, the conference also serves as our annual meeting.  The conference is important to OTC but concern for the health and safety of our members far outweighs the importance of holding an in-person, face-to-face conference.  Out of an abundance of caution and knowing that many of our institutions have travel restrictions in place, we decided that OTC will not host an in-person conference at Ohio Wesleyan University as originally planned. 

Deb Hysell, Conference Chair, Hideo Tsuchida, Conference Co-Chair, and indeed the rest of the Exec Board are exploring new formats and innovative ways to connect. We are confident that this challenge will turn out to be an opportunity to expand the way that OTC members interact with each other.  We hope to meet with all of you in some type of virtual format but the timing, the details and even the feasibility are still being discussed.  We will have more information for you in mid-April.  For now, we ask for your patience as we navigate the challenges of doing something new within a relatively short time-frame.

Please take care of yourselves and stay healthy.

OTC Executive Board