Current News Archive

Eric Goldin, HPS President

First, I want to convey that the Health Physics Society (HPS) Board hopes you are all doing as best you can in these difficult days. And although the HPS annual meeting may not be foremost in your mind, we want to share our thoughts to answer some questions you might have about that meeting.

Bottom line: At this time, the Board is not cancelling the annual meeting. The situation is fluid and this decision will be reevaluated when the Board reconvenes on a conference call in mid-April. We will keep you updated.

Questions and Answers

Why aren't we deciding now?

As you know, hotels are in a bit of a bind with the numerous cancellations taking place, so they are taking a very conservative approach relative to cancellations that are more than a few weeks ahead. Since our meeting is in July, to cancel now would cost the Society $400,000.

Can we postpone?

We have looked into that. What we are finding is that if we can postpone to another date in 2020 (assuming the hotel has available dates), hotels are asking that the cost of the conference be paid up front to be used against the costs at the time the meeting is eventually held. The issue that comes up is around the new dates—if we cannot use them for some reason, we lose the money we paid, which would be the $400,000.

Do we have cancellation insurance?

Well … yes, but not to cover a pandemic. Even if there were domestic flight restrictions in place making it impossible to get to the meeting, if the restrictions are in place due to the pandemic and we have to cancel, we are not covered.

If the COVID-19 restrictions put in place by the federal government today are extended through July, could we cancel without a fee?

We do think that is possible. It is a waiting game. But it does appear that if the government has restrictions on gatherings that go as far out as July, we could cancel with little or no money lost.

Can we renegotiate the number of rooms we reserved or otherwise modify our contract?

Not at this time without fees.

Are we required to have a meeting?

Our Bylaws state that we are required to have one meeting each year. That actually is referring to a business meeting, not the regular meetings as we know them. And we could have a virtual business meeting at some point in the future if that becomes necessary to meet the requirements of our Bylaws.

What about meeting registration; shouldn't that be opening up about now? I don't know what my plans might be.

You are right that this is the usual time before an annual meeting that registration opens up. The Board decided to wait to open registration at this time because it makes no sense for our members to send in money for a meeting that might not be held.

In closing, we're sorry for any inconvenience we're causing you. Our thoughts and well-wishes are with each of you and your families. And again, we will keep you posted as we continue to evaluate holding the HPS annual meeting.