We at NCSM have missed our in-person conferences during the pandemic and are looking forward to our future fall annual conferences, the first of which is the 2022 Annual Meeting in Anaheim, California, scheduled for September 26-28, 2022. Unfortunately, as the conference committee began planning the event, it came to our attention that this 2022 Annual Meeting coincides with the Jewish observance of Rosh Hashanah on September 25-27, 2022.
We did not knowingly schedule our 2022 Annual Meeting to coincide with Rosh Hashanah. Many factors go into planning our conference. The dates and location of NCSM’s Annual Meeting are driven by NCTM’s selection of cities and dates as required by NCSM’s Constitution. We are unable to reschedule our 2022 event due to contractual obligations.
It is important that NCSM’s professional learning events, including the Annual Meeting, contain diverse perspectives and voices from many different backgrounds to share their experiences and tell their stories. While NCSM cannot change what is scheduled for the 2022 Annual Meeting, we can learn from this circumstance and commit to taking action to prevent future such scheduling conflicts. Here are actions we have taken to date.
- We have reviewed our upcoming fall annual conferences scheduled for 2023 and 2024 to ensure there is not a conflict with either Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur as well as known important observances from other religious groups.
- We are implementing new processes to consider calendars of religious observances when scheduling dates for professional learning events.
Although this scheduling conflict was unintentional, we recognize that its impacts are nonetheless strong and inconsistent with our beliefs in equity. We offer a sincere apology as our intent is never to exclude voices from any NCSM event. NCSM continues to grow and learn how to better serve all of our constituents more equitably, including those from a variety of religious backgrounds.