New “Virtual” Dates: Friday, August 21 – Sunday, August 23

07/22/2020

Dear Members,

Along with ongoing negotiations with our Hotel, we’ve been exploring the possibility of providing an Online event for all of you. We are happy to announce that this is now a reality. We have a small team working hard to put together the best online event we can for you to enjoy at the end of August. Due to our transition we’ve revised our dates to reflect the limit of our planning capabilities at this point; they are now Friday, August 21st-Sunday, August 23rd.

As you may know, the skills required to run a virtual event are different from those required to run an in person event. We held off on announcing this digital transformation until we were able to confirm with enough of our staff and guests that they were able and willing to help with a virtual convention that we knew that we’d actually be able to provide you with content.

In recognition of the difficulty of these times we are offering this event for Free with optional donation. We will be reaching out to all our paid members to make sure they have the opportunity to enjoy the content we’re putting together, and are also going to be opening it up to other’s who would like to join.

If you would like to volunteer with us in this challenging transition please fill out our volunteer survey. If you would like to join us as a program participant please email [email protected] .

Thanks

05/20/2020

Dear Members,

Like so many conventions affected by Covid-19, NASFIC has been involved in some very challenging negotiations. Because Ohio is trying to open up its economy, we are likely to have some heavy cancellation fees imposed by our facilities. Therefore, we are unlikely to be able to offer any meaningful level of membership refunds.

We originally felt that any small residual amount could be spent on a low-cost book celebrating our Guests or passed along to a future event to benefit fans in general. We were wrong. If we gave the impression that we were prioritizing the Souvenir book or pass-along funds over the needs of our members, even those in hardship, we’re sorry.

We were also wrong to make such an announcement on a likely outcome before the actual negotiations were finalized. We apologize for those misjudgments, as of now negotiations are still ongoing.

If refunds can be offered, we will. We will also ask anyone who can waive a refund requests do so. We hope to give those most in a more meaningful amount. As soon as we know the amount left over, we will post a refund process.

Although we will absolutely not produce a physical Souvenir / Program Book, we will look into an electronic publication instead.

We understand people will be disappointed by the news that we will probably not be able to make more substantial refunds. We are negotiating in good faith, with our other partners in town, to seek the best possible settlement. I wish I could be more optimistic, but I’m staying realistic and hoping for the best.

Lisa Garrison, Chair
Dale Mazzola, Vice Chair
Kim Williams, Treasurer

Columbus 2020 NASFiC.