Fellow GCA Members,
It is a huge understatement to say 2020 has been a year filled with challenges and changes.
My vision for my term as GCA president certainly did not include a global pandemic that would require cancellation of all live events, but we rose to the challenge by presenting a truncated version of a virtual Noted: The Greeting Card Expo, and the first-ever LOUIE Awards Ceremony to be hosted virtually, with presenters sporting masks. And our first-ever virtual Workshop & Retreat is on the way this November 12-13—I hope to see you online then! One significant benefit of these moves to virtual has been the ability for more members to participate as cost, time, and travel investments have all been lowered. In short, despite the negative impact of COVID on our industry, and on many of our members, the GCA itself is more engaged and relevant than ever.
I’m excited now to announce yet another chance for the GCA. The GCA Board of Directors is pleased to welcome Nora Weiser as our new Executive Director, and to move our headquarters to Denver, CO, where management and staff support services will be provided by Civica Associations, Conferences & Exhibitions.
In a year where so much change has been foisted upon us, we are delighted that this change was very intentional and driven by the Board to shape a more responsive, supportive, inclusive, and forward-looking association for you, our members. We actually started the effort to change our association management team in January—before COVID, if anyone can remember such a time—and culminated a national search with the selection of Civica. All industries have been impacted by the current pandemic, and it has given us a chance to reevaluate how we do things, why we do things, and most importantly how our organization, and the industry we serve, are changing. As a creative industry, we are excited to partner with a creative leader and a creative management company to help us change, grow, and evolve.
This change is effective today, October 1, so please pardon our dust as we add new features to the website and gear up to open registration for the 2020 Virtual Workshop & Retreat next week, and open Louie Award entry submissions in early November. We’ll be in touch soon to share information on how you can log in, update your profile, and access important member resources. Our updated contact information is at the bottom of this email. We hope to provide uninterrupted service, but apologize for any hiccups that might occur as we finalize transition of our database and files to our new location.
I do want to take a moment to thank our previous management team at Bostrom, and Executive Director Peter Doherty, for their efforts on behalf of the GCA over the past six years. They helped the GCA through a strong growth period, and we are now poised to further strengthen our association with our new team.
I look forward to working with Nora and the Civica team, and I hope you’ll join me in welcoming them into the GCA community!
Sincerely,
George White
President