Dear NATJA Family:
So much has happened in the last two weeks that has affected each of us.
The COVID-19 crisis continues to spread and has hit home with our members. Because we all are family, we’ve created a way to share your experience as we all try to manage forward. Most of us are hunkering down, sheltering in place and social distancing. But our NATJA family has already been affected. Terri Marshall-Holder from New York City became ill and graciously shared her experience with us. Rob Jerome has been in self-quarantine in his Manhattan apartment for the last 22 days and looks forward to a time when this crisis will end. He has a view of the Empire State Building, aglow in red in honor of the emergency workers who have been serving the city. These are just two members sharing their experiences. We invite you to share how you are surviving during these difficult times by sending a “Postcard to NATJA” on the Facebook group page, Twitter or Instagram. Please use the hashtag #PostcardToNATJA to share with our membership.
The NATJA Advisory Board has been having weekly conference calls for updates and ideas on how we can best serve the membership during these difficult times. Thus, the webinars that we have provided in the last couple of weeks. Thank you to Jeffrey Lehmann and Sandra Foyt for stepping up and sharing their expertise on the essentials of Instagram and selling travel photos on stock agencies. If you missed these excellent sessions, you can watch them by logging into your account on the website at www.natja.org. If there are particular topics that you would like to recommend or would be willing to lead a webinar, please contact yani@natja.org.
We are all feeling the pain as a result of this virus. To that end, for budgetary reasons, we have closed NATJA’s physical office and we are all working remotely. Yani and Laura are working part-time, 20 hours per week, and Omar has been furloughed. We will continue to respond to your requests as quickly as possible given the circumstances.
Great news during a torrent of bad news: The conference in Puerto Rico has been rescheduled to May 18 – 21, 2021. We thank Discover Puerto Rico for the diligence and support in securing new dates that work for them and our host hotel, the Sheraton Puerto Rico Hotel & Casino. Thanks also to the Discover Puerto Rico team for their commitment to NATJA and seeing the value and importance of our conference. We’re looking forward to a wonderful conference in better times!
Lastly, if your dues are up for renewal, you will be given an extra 2 months of membership upon renewal. If you have paid recently, we will automatically extend your membership by two months or if you need an extension, please let Yani know. This offer will be in effect from March 1, 2020 to February 28, 2021 for membership renewals. This is one small way we can help our members.
We deeply appreciate your continued support of NATJA and of each other which is why we see you as our family.
Take care. Be safe and stay well.
Warm regards,
Helen Hernandez
Chief Executive Officer
