Announcements

Message from IPS President about joint meeting of IPS/SLAPrim QUITO 2021 (August 16 2020)

16 August 2020

Dear IPS Members,

I am writing on the eve of what should have been the 2020 joint meeting of the International Primatological Society (IPS) and the Latin American Society of Primatology  (SLAPrim) in Quito, Ecuador.  Many of us would already be in Quito, greeting friends and colleagues, and gearing up for a week of stimulating presentations, posters, workshops, and roundtables, in addition to celebrating the winners of our various recognition awards.

As we all know, the realities and risks of the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated our decision to postpone the meetings until 2021, in addition to all of the other changes we have each had to make in all other parts of our lives.  Many of us have had to juggle a constellation of family and personal responsibilities on top of professional activities.  Many research and conservation programs, in both field and captive settings, have been suspended or reduced in scope for the protection of both human and nonhuman primates and their communities.  All of us are concerned about the safety and well-being of the primates and the people with whom we work, and we will continue to do everything we can to help ensure their safety from afar.

I am writing to reassure everyone that our plans for the 2021 joint IPS-SLAPrim meeting are still active. The 2021 meeting is still scheduled to be held from August 15-21, 2021 at all of the same venues in Quito, Ecuador we have planned.  If your abstracts were accepted earlier this year and you did not request a registration refund, then there is nothing more you need to do. The Scientific committee will be offering the opportunity to update your abstract in early 2021, at the same time that we re-open registration for people who are not currently registered but would like to either re-register (if you requested a refund) or register for the first time (if you could not attend in 2020 but will be able to attend in 2021).  We anticipate re-opening the Congress website in January 2021, so please watch for announcements about this, as well as about the deadlines for new registration and IPS grants.

The other IPS officers and I are in the process of putting together what would have been our Post-congress IPS Bulletin. This will include the usual reports from officers and results of our grants and awards committees.  In addition, we will be inviting the representatives from our affiliate societies to contribute updates for a special series on “The Status of Primates, Primatologists, and Primatological Research and Conservation during COVID-19.”   We hope that this series will provide a forum for diverse voices to share both the challenges they have faced and any coping strategies they have found.  We can also use ideas from this series to identify additional ways in which IPS may be able to advance our affiliate societies’ directives.

I encourage all of you to continue to follow the IPS website and social media venues for news and announcements. And, I sincerely hope that you are all looking forward to Quito 2021 as much as I am!

Best wishes, Stay safe,
Karen B. Strier
President, IPS