Dear colleagues in ink,
Last night, the ACA Board met to discuss the very real impacts of the current COVID-19 health crisis on our profession and on ACA activities, with particular regard to this year’s Stanley Awards.
While the projected dates for this year’s awards — 24th and 25th October — are still some way off, we felt it was important for cartoonists and the Board to have some clarity about our direction for this year, given the degree of uncertainty that pervades every other aspect of daily life.
Certainly, the Board acknowledged that the current health crisis, and it’s impact on our profession, will definitely affect the income-earning ability of most ACA members. The cost of attending the next Stanleys and the conference or booking accommodation might well be out of financial reach as a result. Likewise, the ACA’s ability to secure sponsorship has almost certainly been severely handicapped.
The Board’s decisions were:
- To abandon plans to stage the conference and awards dinner in Melbourne in 2020, but to revisit the venues recommended by our planning team in 2021
- To prepare the 2020 Stanley Awards Year Book as per usual and conduct voting in the usual manner
- To consider, closer to the time, a way to present the Awards themselves, conditional on social restrictions in place.
We apologise to everyone who was looking forward to our annual weekend, however these are quite uncertain times with an unpredictable, deadly adversary calling the shots.
We will keep you posted with further developments.
In the meantime, if anyone has questions or requires advice, feel free to contact ACA Board members (contact details are listed on page 2 of Inkspot).
Jules Faber
President
Australian Cartoonists Association