In a first for our club, this week’s meeting was an experiment in combining a Zoom Meeting with a socially distanced physical one at our normal meeting venue of Swanage Conservative Club.
Just under half of the members met in person, with the venue ensuring that safety was paramount, people seated in accordance with Government guidelines and both food and drink served to us to avoid unnecessary movement around the venue. Then, after the meal, we started the Zoom meeting with other members joining us virtually via a laptop and projection onto the large screen in the club.
Our speaker, also joining us via Zoom, was Keith Lockett, who is our local Shelterbox co-ordinator. He gave us a superb presentation, screen shared via Zoom so that everyone could see it, on the work of Shelterbox since it’s inception, how many people it has provided assistance for, how our own club has made significant contributions over the years and how the organisation has had to adapt in the current COVID-19 circumstances.
After the presentation, Keith answered a number of questions from members on the various topics that had been presented. On behalf of the club Rotarian Dai Hounsell proposed a vote of thanks for an excellent update on the work of the charity.
Initial reaction to this experimental form of meeting was very positive and assuming that follow-up feedback is equally positive we are likely to conduct further meetings via this method, assuming the virus situation does not adversely affect plans.
As ever, anyone wishing to join us for future meetings is most welcome. Just contact the secretary for joining details.
