Council Communication on 2023 Annual Meeting

ACNP Council Communication on 2023 Annual Meeting
June 20, 2023

Since our last communication on May 31, the ACNP Council has continued to discuss the location for our Annual Meeting in 2023 and in the future. We have heard a diversity of opinions from our members, and we welcome your continued feedback. We are writing to update you on our deliberations and recent decisions.

As reported in our May 31 statement, it is not feasible for us to move the 2023 meeting away from Tampa and still have any in-person component. Thus, we are making every effort to make as many attendance options as possible available for all of our members and guests.  Also, over the past two weeks, ACNP staff has worked closely with the city and the Marriott to ensure safety and comfort for those attending the meeting.  In doing so, we have learned more about the progressive efforts in Tampa to be an inclusive, welcoming city.  Below is relevant information about Tampa and the College’s planned efforts for December.

• The city of Tampa has a 100% rating from the Human Rights Campaign.
• The repercussions of canceling fall primarily on low-wage travel and hospitality workers with limited effects on state policymakers or corporations.
• Tampa is led by the city’s first openly gay mayor (who was previously Tampa’s first female chief of police), who is fighting statewide policies that harm marginalized communities. Please view the letter from Mayor Jane Castor and visit Mayor Castor’s website.
• The Executive Office is working with Equality Florida to offer volunteer opportunities and social offsets while in Tampa.
• ACNP has partnered with SocialOffset.org to allow attendees to donate during registration to a charity of their choice that is working to offset Florida’s position from within.
• The Executive Office has worked with the JW Marriott Tampa Water Street and Tampa Marriott Water Street to convert a restroom nearby the conference center to be an all-gender restroom.

As a reminder, to increase access, Council has modified the annual meeting attendance policy for the 2023 Annual Meeting as follows:

• This year’s meeting will offer fully hybrid in-person and virtual options for attendance.
• Any member either attending in-person or virtually will be allowed to offer an invitation to the meeting. Council is requesting for members attending virtually to find an in-person mentor for your invitee if they are a trainee.  As a reminder, Associate Members are only allowed to extend invitations from the invitation banks.
• An additional year of attendance will be offered to all past travel awardees who choose not to attend in person. The awardees may join virtually this year and still receive another year to attend in person.
• Given the rapidly changing environment and the above considerations, ACNP will waive the membership attendance requirement for this year’s meeting.

Council also engaged legal counsel to conduct an overview of the current laws and proposed legislation in Florida that are likely to be in place at the time of our Annual Meeting in Tampa in December 2023, and that could impact on the safety of meeting attendees. Our counsel outlined for us the specific safety issues that such laws raise for our members who belong to the targeted groups.  Given these concerns and the value that we place on inclusivity, Council is committed to not contracting future meetings in locations with discriminatory laws at the time of contracting.  We see this as a natural extension of our stated values and prior actions promoting diversity and inclusion in our meeting attendees, membership, and field.  We will be communicating more to the College after our summer Council meeting regarding discussion and planning for future meetings.

Last but hardly least, the ACNP Program Committee is actively pulling together an exceptional hybrid conference with the best science in our field for December.  Council looks forward to welcoming you to the 62^nd ACNP Annual Meeting and providing a welcoming and inclusive environment.