Dear SkillsUSA New Mexico,
Before this news is released to the general public, we wanted to inform you of the recent decision reached by SkillsUSA’s national office on the status of the 2020 National Leadership and Skills Conference. In addition, we will be meeting early next to determine how this impacts plans for our Virtual State Leadership and Skills Conference and will provide timely updates. What follows quoted in bold is a portion of the official statement from SkillsUSA Executive Director Chelle Travis:
“SkillsUSA has made the difficult decision to cancel all in-person activities related to NLSC — including our SkillsUSA Championships — and focus on essential organizational leadership opportunities conducted in a virtual setting.
Many factors led to this decision, but I’d like to share the two most impactful. First, there is nothing more important to SkillsUSA than the health and wellbeing of our members and stakeholders. With so much yet unknown about this virus and how long it might affect us, we could not in good conscience move forward with an in-person event this June.
Second, our national event is dependent on state participation. As of this writing, 27 states have canceled their conferences and would not be participating in our national event even if it was held as planned. Others are basing their decisions on whether or not their school systems reconvene this year, which becomes less likely each day.
SkillsUSA completely supports the difficult decisions our dedicated state directors have made over the last several weeks, and we commend them for their tireless work. Nevertheless, without robust state participation, holding our national conference is simply not a viable option.”
A full statement and video of Chelle personally delivering the full message to our entire membership will soon be added to the national website at this link (note that the public response may not yet be available at the time you’re reading this).
We all share in the disappointment this news brings, but we fully support the national office and believe this decision is ultimately in the best interest of our entire organization. We will be sharing more news as it’s received from the national office in the days ahead.
In the meantime, thank you for your tireless work and selfless dedication to our students, whose lives you continue to change every day.
In your service,
Natalie Donnelly
State Director
SkillsUSA New Mexico
