2020 was a difficult year for everyone, and 2021 continues to make its sting felt despite the promise of change in the wind. The core staff and management team of the Academy for Advanced & Challenge Enthusiasts met to discuss the future of our beloved convention, and the mood was grim. For some time prior to the pandemic a steady trend of declining attendance had us wondering when we would be forced to make some radical changes. Then the enforced cessation of dancing for over a year and a half, and the cancellation of two successive AACE conventions seemed like a death-knell. The AACE 2020/2021 convention would have been our 20th year of a great run, and we would have loved to go out with a bang...but no one wants to go out with a whimper and be remembered as such. The prevailing feeling was that it would be better to end it on a high note. Because of all the unknown factors, we decided not to have a final convention.

We wanted to thank you for the years of fun, laughter and friendship we shared at AACE.

We sincerely hope you are in good health and spirits and that you are keeping busy doing things that make you happy. Life will return to normal and we all look forward to that time. We miss communing with you and hope to see you in the not too distant future. All the best!