Video Conferencing was our saviour!
During the Covid19 virus outbreak, all club face-to-face meetings were suspended. However, because the committee acknowledges that most members can't do without their Thursday night 'Fix', we continued operations by using video-conferencing, wherever possible. As of March 2022 the relaxation of Covid19 'gathering' rules freed us to do what we like (within reason) and so from the end of June, all meetings will be held physically at the The Vale and will not be 'Zoomed'.

Why no Zoom?
'Zoom'-based meetings are no longer to be provided by the club. We realise that some members - for medical reasons - will feel unable to be in a room with other members and we sympathise with that. However - and in common with a lot of other organisations - it is apparent that a certain amount of 'Zoom' fatigue is creeping in. Joining a meeting on a screen is not like mingling with your mates in a room and we feel that we must do what we can to get back to normal social interaction.

Also, the technical requirements of handling a zoom meeting in parallel with a physical one are very demanding and one or more of our membership has to be totally focused on that task, destroying their ability to enjoy the meeting. We put a call out to the membership to assist with this so as to lighten the load but only one member (outside the committee) responded. This crystallised our position.

But I don't feel safe/comfortable being in a large gathering!
Understood. If you are vulnerable to complications due to other health issues, we sympathise totally. However, the majority of our members are not in this group and so it is felt that we need to 'encourage' them to return to normal operation. A difficult decision, but one which serves the larger proportion of the membership.

Are our presenters/judges happy with this?

In general, yes, and where possible our program secretary will book only those who are able to come to the Vale. There will be an overlap period where we need to allow for some presenters who were booked on the basis of 'Zoom' but who will or cannot attned in person: to cancel them would put holes int he program so in these few cases we will be 'Zooming' their presentation into the club venue but NOT 'zooming' it out to members who are not present at the Vale.

Is this principle immutable?

Yes, unless the COVID situation changes to prevent gatherings of folk.

COMPETITIONS - how will they work?
Back to normal. In particular our 6 'set' competitions will be alternately 3 each of DPI and Prints. It will be fantastic to see the latter again!

What about the special interest groups?
Smaller numbers of members are involved and therefore they will decide amongst themselves how to run their meetings, either physically or via 'Zoom', taking into account the needs of their flock.

When, oh when is this going to end?

Hmm. No-one knows, of course. However, we can drive things to a certain extent: if we all make Big Efforts to get back to normal (insofar as we are able) we might end up forgetting what the word 'lockdown' meant....