Upcoming Events

"Alice said nothing: she had sat down with her face in her hands, wondering if anything would ever happen in a natural way again." - Chapter X
Illustration by Honor C. Appleton, 1936

Dear Members and Friends of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America,

Fall 2020 Meeting

Today I write to inform you that, while the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic makes it impractical to have an in-person event in October, we are excited to announce the LCSNA will conduct the meeting as a virtual series of events in October.

Why

Although October seems far away, for those of us who have to plan events for the fall, this was something to consider now. First, there were significant restrictions to contend with for a live event, including the need for every person to be at least 6 feet apart for both the lectures and meals, the necessary cleaning and disinfecting before/during/after the meeting, the impossibility of conducting the Schaefer Memorial Reading at a local school, and the impracticality of the catered Sunday event, to mention just a few.

Travel in October would carry significant risks, particularly for older members, including most members on the Board. Knowing that all of these problems were unlikely to change before the first weekend in October, we decided it was unsafe and impractical to hold the event as originally envisioned.

The Virtual Meeting

The verdict is actually more promising than the sentence seems to imply. The LCSNA Board is in agreement that we should not abandon what would have been a very strong program, but rather that we should turn this into the first ever LCSNA Virtual Meeting

Holding this as a virtual event will be a boon to those who are in different time zones, as well as Carrollians who for whatever reason—cost, distance—could never before attend an LCSNA event. Rather than staging this as a single-day event we are looking at providing the presentations as a series of sessions throughout October.

Arnold Hirshon, Vice Provost and University Librarian at Case Western Reserve University, for the third time this year! agreed to plan and host this event. We will be back in touch as soon as we have scheduled all of the speakers and have an itinerary with specific dates and times. You will be able to follow updates about the latest program developments on the LCSNA website, www.lewiscarroll.org.

During this period of uncertainty, we look forward to a time when it will again be possible for us to travel and experience the camaraderie of an in-person meeting. In the meantime, we will zoom through a modern-day looking-glass so we can continue to enjoy the wit and wisdom of the world of Lewis Carroll as interpreted by our speakers.

If you have questions, please send an email to linda.cassady@comcast.net

We wish good health to all.

Linda Cassady, President, and the Board of Directors
Lewis Carroll Society of North America