Church of the Brethren Newsline
May 3, 2018
The Church of the Brethren Annual Conference planned for summer 2019 has been forced to change locations, according to director Chris Douglas. Unexpected delays with major renovations at the Town and Country resort in San Diego, Calif., where the Conference was to have been held, have forced this change. “Town and Country cancelled our contract,” she reported.
Resort staff informed Douglas of the situation just last week, and since then she and the Conference officers and Program and Arrangements Committee have worked hard to identify an alternate location. Instead of San Diego, the 2019 Conference will be held at the Koury Convention Center and Sheraton Hotel in Greensboro, N.C.
It was “miraculous” that the Greensboro site had the right dates available and could accommodate the Conference at such short notice, Douglas said. Both locations have been used for previous Annual Conferences, San Diego in 2009 and Greensboro in 2016. Greensboro also will be the location for the 2021 Conference.
Douglas emphasizes that the Program and Arrangements Committee remains committed to seeking western sites for future Conferences.
The dates of the 2019 Conference will remain the same as previously announced: July 3-7.
Pacific Southwest District was scheduled to be the host district for 2019. District volunteers who had begun planning for the event have been informed of the change, and have been invited to continue to work on the 2019 Conference in the new location, if they still wish to volunteer.
Although this location change was out of the control of the Annual Conference, Douglas has extended an apology to volunteers who had begun working on the 2019 Conference and to church members across the country who may have begun arrangements to travel to a southern California destination next summer.
For questions or more information, contact Douglas at cdouglas@brethren.org.
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