Preparation of the 2021 online meeting of the Central Council (September 2021)

To all IAJ Member Associations

Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to you on behalf of the Presidency Committee which, at its meeting of March, 20^th, 2021, has decided that it would not be possible to hold a meeting in person in 2021, as had been planned. Accordingly, the Presidency Committee has decided to pursue and finalise the initiatives already started to organise an annual meeting of the IAJ in September 2021. The dates which have been fixed are: 11^th and 12^th, with a possible extension to 13^th and/or 14^th of September. Of course, more details and exact dates and hours of the online event will be provided as soon as they are finalised. The current situation of the pandemic in any part of the world does not allow favourable forecasts, during the current year 2021, of holding a meeting in person, which would be of course our most favorite option, by far. In any case, we must be well prepared from now to implement the very probable need to hold a meeting online.

The Presidency Committee thinks absolutely necessary that we start from now preparatory activities of test and interaction for our participants, in order to make sure that the event will be a success. To do so, we must ascertain that all participants will be ready to meet the inevitable “technicalities” which the use of technological devices brings about.

This is why we have decided to plan a calendar of test meetings with you, under the supervision and with the help of our IT technicians, and with the participation of interpreters. The IAJ will ensure that the meeting of the Central Council will have simultaneous for English/French/Spanish translation: therefore, we also need to get ourselves acquainted with the way an online meeting is held with the assistance of translators.

In order to organise the timetables of such tests, we ask you kindly to send us the names of two delegates, who will represent your Association at the IAJ meeting in September. We need as well their e-mail addresses, where they can be easily reached. We are planning to have an attendance at the September meeting of more than two delegates per Member Association and are still working on that aspect; therefore, we are asking you for the moment to provide us with only the two names who can be available to participate in the tests, but who will be expected to attend the online meeting in September. It is absolutely essential for the smooth conduct of the meeting in September that the two names you give us now will be of those who you plan will be trained by us now for the September meeting.

You are kindly requested, therefore, kindly to send us a message of the following kind:

We are planning to start our tests from the beginning of April and we are confident of a prompt reply from you.

Kind regards,

Giacomo Oberto

Secretary-General of the IAJ