copy of a message from Peter Tuddenham, past-president@myisss.org:

The ISSS 2020 Conference and Annual Meeting will be held in South Africa July 11-14 2020. The theme is Systemic Change towards Sustainable Development: Innovative and Integrative Approaches The ISSS2020 conference will be co-hosted by the CST and NWU in Stellenbosch, Cape Town, South Africa. Watch the invitational video here https://youtu.be/xLvN-y5Y0Pw

It is understood that not all members will be able to travel to South Africa. It is also recognized that the ISSS now has 9 months of experience conducting SIG sessions on the web using video meeting apps like Bluejeans and Zoom.

I am leading a small sub-committee exploring the possibility of arranging Conference Nodes, so that members not able to travel to South Africa could travel to a location acting a Conference Node somewhere in the world. This ISSS Conference Nodes would mirror some of the main activities at the conference in South Africa but at a location that might be more convenient for members. For example plenary sessions would be live streamed and or recorded and forwarded for viewing, and paper presentations would be organized in both South Africa and at Conference Nodes. I and others helped several members make presentations in their SIG this year from locations around the world to a screen in Corvallis by using bluejeans, zoom, or skype. Presenters paid the full or a day registration fee. Attendees at a Node Conference would be expected to pay a registration fee.

I have taken a look at current membership and looked at countries and regions that have more than 5 members. I think that is a reasonable criteria for an expectation of where an ISSS 2020 Conference Node might be a possibility. The idea is that a Node would encourage face to face activity at the Node and also between the Node and the main conference site in South Africa, and other Nodes too.

Those potential areas are: Argentina, Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Uk, and in the USA the states of California, New York, Maryland, Oregon, Virginia and Washington.

To even begin to think of this as a possibility someone or someones in a region would need to step forward and be a Node organizer. If you are willing to think about the possibility please email me. There is no budget for this, and it would be a bootstrap experience.

Obviously the tradition has been to encourage the one site face to face meeting in one location. But we believe we need to be creative to encourage diversity and wider participation and to build membership by developing a Conference Node strategy. There are organizational, technical, financial, and many other challenges to realize this idea.

So if you are willing to explore this idea and willing to organize a Conference Node contact me. This is a possibility exploration at this stage.

Thanks

Peter Tuddenham
Past-President 2018-2019