Update on the Colorado Municipal League's 98th Annual Conference

CML Newsletter
May 8, 2020

By Kevin Bommer, CML executive director


Over CML's history, the Annual Conference has been the premiere training event for Colorado municipal officials. It is an opportunity to learn from experts and each other, as well as to network with your colleagues from around the state. Since 1923, as near as we can tell, CML's ability to hold the conference has never been threatened until this year. 

In late March, we began to evaluate all of the possibilities, as well as the likelihood that we would be able to hold the conference you expect with nearly 1,300 of your colleagues, exhibitors, sponsors, and guests. In addition, we know that most of our member municipalities must reduce discretionary expenses, as revenues continue to suffer, and we know that includes having to furlough or lay off employees. 

Very simply, even if public health orders might allow for it in June, we cannot put on the Annual Conference that you expect or deserve, and we would not want to risk the health, safety, and welfare of you — our valued members. CML made the decision that we will cancel this year's conference in Westminster and are currently working with the Westin to reschedule for June 2025. 

We are committed to continuing to meet our mission by providing virtual training opportunities, including a virtual conference to be held later this year. We ask that you
help shape what that virtual conference
will look like by completing a brief survey at bit.ly/2KZKOAR.  

Annual Business Meeting and CML Board elections

In addition to being a key part of our mission, our annual business meeting held at our annual conference is part of our bylaws. We are planning to hold the annual business meeting virtually on June 25. We ask that you save the date to attend this meeting as it is your opportunity to vote on board members, the CML policy statement, and receive the announcement of 2021 dues. Your participation in this meeting is crucial, now more than ever. More information on this meeting will be available soon. 

If you have already registered to attend this year's conference, you will be issued a full refund. Refunds will be processed in the next 30 days to the method of payment used to purchase. While no action is required to receive this refund, you will need to contact your hotel to cancel any lodging reservations. For those staying at the host hotel, the Westin Westminster, there will be no cancellation fees as long as your reservation is cancelled more than two days before your scheduled arrival.  

We are grateful to our slate of speakers and panelists for their willingness to share their expertise with our conference attendees. We are hoping to include as many of them as possible in our virtual conference later this year or reschedule them for next year's annual conference in Snowmass Village. 

Also, we could not put on the conference without the support and partnership of our sponsors, and we will be reaching out to all of them regarding next steps. We encourage our members to visit our conference sponsor page, at www.cml.org/conference, to view these supporting partners.  

Finally, the City of Westminster is an incredible partner and we have thoroughly enjoyed working with city staff and elected officials throughout the conference planning process. The hard work and dedication to putting on a first-class event is not in vain. We are disappointed we will not be visiting your city in 2020, but we will more than make up for it with the 2025 Annual Conference in Westminster.  

Again, we thank all of you for your patience while we worked through this process.
We sincerely hope that you will be able to attend our virtual conference and we cannot
wait until we can all come together again
June 22–25, 2021 in Snowmass Village.