As a valued member of the VNCA or broader veterinary nursing community, the following update is provided on behalf of the VNCA Board.  At this unprecedented time, the VNCA’s primary thoughts and priority are the health and welfare of our members and the wider community as the COVID-19 outbreak evolves rapidly across the globe. 
 
1.    26th VNCA Conference, Melbourne - postponed:

Following recent announcements by Australian government authorities including a ban on large gatherings, the VNCA Board is continuing to assess options for the 26th VNCA Conference which regrettably we will be postponing until later this year.  I am sure you can imagine the enormous amount of work this entails as we liaise with venues and suppliers as well as speakers and sponsors.  
 
We are expecting to be in a position to announce alternative plans within the coming week including replacement dates, and arrangements for delegates who may wish to vary their bookings.  In the meantime, should you have travel arrangements in place we encourage you to commence the task of rescheduling. 
 
On behalf of the VNCA Board, I would particularly like to thank the Conference Organising Committee for their work to date which contributed to us attracting a record number of delegates at the close of early bird registrations.  We will continue to work closely with them to navigate through the present situation and deliver an exceptional conference later in the year.  We also thank all our valued members, conference delegates, speakers, sponsors and exhibitors for your patience and understanding, and apologise for the inconvenience. We will provide further updates at the earliest possible opportunity.
 
2.    VNCA Division meetings – postponed:
 
Beyond the conference, the VNCA Board is drawing directly on current advice and information to limit non-essential meetings.  This will mean that VNCA Division meetings will also be postponed during this time, and rescheduled once the overall position becomes clearer. We apologise for the inconvenience.
 
3.    **New for 2020** – Online conference:   
 
In these challenging times the VNCA Board remains committed to providing opportunities for our members to stay connected to their veterinary nursing community and learn.  I am therefore excited to announce that we will be offering an online conference in the near future.   We are focusing our resources on making arrangements to deliver this learning opportunity before the end of June and look forward to announcing further plans in coming weeks.
 
Please remember that we have a range of resources available to members via the HR Helpline and the Wellness Hub which may assist you and your colleagues to navigate through these difficult times.   Take care and look after yourselves, your family and each other, and I’ll be in touch again in the near future with further updates.