Check-in with Suzanne

Hello Everyone,

With the successful passage of Set One of the GBTA Bylaw changes, voting for Set Two of Bylaw changes is underway now through May 21. Members previously categorized as “Direct,” “Allied” or “Indirect” are now all classified as “Active Members” and for the first time, all Active Members may vote on proposed bylaw changes. So please share your voice and vote!! As our industry and Association recover, it’s important that all Active Members vote and have their voices heard.

We’re also in a period of a “call for nominations” for candidates to serve on the GBTA Board of Directors. For more information on the nomination criteria and open seats, click here. Here is the timeline for this process:

• Now to May 27: Call for nominations
• June 14: Director and Officer candidates announced
• June 15: Live virtual Global Candidate Forum
• June 21-July 19: Voting period for open board positions
• July 20: Election Board of Director results announced during our Annual Business Meeting and Mid-Year Virtual Summit

All members eligible to vote on Set Two of the Bylaw changes and eligible to submit board of director nominations were sent an email from Election Services. If you did not receive the email, please contact Shane Downey, GBTA’s vice president of government and community relations:

sdowney@gbta.org or +1 703 236 1131. You may also contact Election Services Corporation directly: gbtahelp@electionservicescorp.com or +1 866 720 HELP (4357).

We continue to advocate for a safe return to business travel across all regions. Yesterday, I sent a letter to Mr. Jeffrey Zients , COVID-19 Response Team Coordinator for the Biden Administration, urging the Administration to restart transatlantic business travel for vaccinated individuals effective immediately. You can click here.

 

News to Know

U.S. Senator Calls on U.S. and Canada to Release Plan for Reopening Border: In a letter released last week, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called for a “transparent, bilateral, and public plan” based on public health data and guidance, with specific standards, protocols, and metrics for reopening the border, to be released as soon as possible.

Canada: Vaccination Plans Moving Forward for Children Ages 12 and Up: With Health Canada’s approval last week of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children ages 12 and up, it’s now up to provinces and territories to determine vaccine roll-out plans.

EU and U.S. Travel Associations Call on Governments to Reopen Travel: A letter from industry associations and travel suppliers in the U.S. and U.K. pointed to the success of the two countries’ vaccination programs and reinforced that trade and investment between the two countries represented more than a trillion pounds.

LATAM Airlines Group Sets Aggressive New Sustainability Strategy: Plans call for moving beyond simply buying carbon credits  and offsetting half of the group’s emissions on its domestic operations by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.

 

GBTA News & Reminders

Upcoming Chapter Events You Don’t Want to Miss: There are so many valuable chapter events coming up. Take a few minutes to check them out here. I’m looking forward to the Georgia Chapter’s May 20 session where I’ll be participating in a Town Hall and giving an Association update.

Wednesday is Ready. Safe. Travel. Training Regional Session: For registered participants of this 4-week series, the second session on May 12 will have attendees break out into region-specific sessions that focus on the challenges and nuances of getting back to travel in each respective geography. The nearly 700 attendees will dive into solutions and strategies to get our industry back to traveling and meeting again.

In closing, I ask that you please mark June 2 on your calendar for these two important items:

1. Re-opening of the Convention 2021 registration for the new dates of November 17-19
2. Restart of our Collaboratory Series, which was highly attended in 2020. The first 2021 session on June 2 will focus on several Convention updates and quickly pivot into the very important topic of sustainability in our industry.

 

Have a wonderful week,

 

Suzanne