Happy May everyone. I hope you and your family are doing well as we begin to emerge from the COVID-19 Pandemic. We have had a great first four months of 2021 that included a fantastic technology conference put on by our programs team. I wanted to send this note out to our membership to provide you an update on where ATD Houston is on moving back to in-person events as well as provide an update on our virtual programming. 

At our Board Meeting on May 3, the Board of Directors voted to begin a hybrid version of programming beginning in July. A hybrid version means that there will be both in-person and virtual options of the meeting available. The plan is to begin with our General Meeting for that month. Naturally this will only occur if we stay on the current trajectory. During May and June we will be developing the protocols for meetings to ensure everyone’s safety and those will be announced in late June. 

With this change to our programming we will also make another change. At the beginning of the pandemic your Board of Directors shifted all programming to virtual only. Recognizing that times were difficult we also suspended payments for all programs so that we could support the Talent Development community in the Houston area. Like many of you, 2020 was a difficult time for the Houston ATD Chapter. Our chapter relies on three primary streams of income: memberships, programs, and sponsors. The pandemic disrupted two of those streams; programs and sponsors. While the board was diligent and reduced as many expenses as possible we do have fixed costs that cannot be changed. While we have maintained a positive balance thanks to our previous years where we managed to save reserves, our income dropped significantly. With this in mind we will also be moving back to a fee based approach for all of our programs in July as well. This will help us continue to support the Talent Development community in the Houston area by keeping the chapter on a stable financial footing. 

If you have any questions regarding this change please feel free to reach out to me or any of our board members. I look forward to the rest of 2021 and seeing everyone very soon. 

Robert Cocheu, CPTD
2021 President
ATD Houston