Presidents message Spring 2020                                                                                      

Although we “may want the world to be knowable and controllable, that’s simply not how it works.”[1] Many events in the 21^st century have proven that to be true including the current worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has certainly strained many non-profit and for-profit organizations and unfortunately, some to the breaking point. While the cancellation of our annual conference and exhibition impacted USSD’s financial situation, our organization is stable. This is due to the relatively strong position we were in at the start of the year because of fundamental changes USSD’s Executive Director and Board of Directors made over the past few years to reduce costs, implement a yearly business plan, and improve our organization’s financial management system and investment portfolio. USSD is prepared to continue to provide excellent service and outstanding educational opportunities to you, our members. Our Executive Director, Sharon Powers, continues to monitor potential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and is working closely with Elena Sossenkina, 2020 Conference Technical Planning Chair, to identify opportunities to present some portions of the developed technical content.

[1] Roger Martin, Harvard Business Review — The Big Lie of Strategic Planning

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