After much prayer and thoughtful consideration, the CAPE-NM Board has come to the decision to cancel the 2020 CAPE-NM Homeschool Convention. For 24 years, CAPE-NM has been offering the Convention as one of the many ways to fulfill our mission of informing, encouraging, and supporting homeschool families here in New Mexico. We know that for many in our state, the yearly convention was not only an opportunity to learn about curriculum options or attend seminars to grow as parents and educators, but it also provided the means to build relationships with other homeschool families around the state that have faced the same challenges and victories we each face. Because of these reasons, this decision was very difficult to make and one that we waited until the last moment to reach. We would like to share some of our reasons for making this decision.
Even though we are seeing restrictions lifted across the state, we are still unsure when gatherings of greater than 100 will be allowed in New Mexico. We could proceed with a new date in late July/early August, and still find ourselves a week from the new date with these restrictions in place. With this uncertainty, it was difficult to confidently encourage our speakers, vendors, and families across the state to make travel arrangements and book hotels for our event.
Second, as a non-profit organization, we desire to practice good stewardship with what CAPE-NM has been blessed with through your donations. Our convention is our largest budget item each year, and with this uncertainty, we did not feel it was prudent to pour finances, as well as hundreds of hours of our many volunteers’ time into preparations for the convention, only to discover that we won’t be able to proceed due to continued restrictions.
We want to assure you that we are working to find ways that we can still meet the mission of CAPE-NM, while still being within the state mandated COVID-19 guidelines. We are looking at ways to provide Q&A sessions, Getting Started Seminars, and other encouraging workshops via Facebook live and Zoom. We are also still hopeful that restrictions will have lifted so that our annual Back to School Picnic will be enjoyed in Albuquerque, as well as other cities around the state. As we continue to move forward with these opportunities, we will post information on our website, Facebook, and in our Communiques. If you would like to receive the information through the Communique, please click here to sign up.
Initially, as you continue, or possibly are just beginning, this homeschool journey, CAPE-NM would like to bless you with recordings from the 2018 and 2019 CAPE-NM Homeschool Conventions as our gift. If you will visit our website here, you can use the code CAPE 2020 at checkout. This code will cover the costs for complete sets of all recordings for the two years. The coupon is valid until September 1, 2020, and we’d like to encourage you to share with your friends and family.
Finally, if you have already registered for the convention, all refunds of convention registration will be processed by June 30th. We would ask that you consider making a donation or becoming a supporting member of CAPE-NM. Your contributions help us to continue to fight to protect parents’ rights, to inform, to encourage, and to support homeschooling families here in New Mexico. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to serve you in this journey. If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at info@cape-nm.org.