Hi everyone
I hope you are all doing well in this challenging new lifestyle of ours, all isolating at home thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic. Many of our members are isolating in isolation, far from family and away from many of their usual social contacts and supports. We have no idea, of course, how long we will be caged at home, before we can be released back into the wild.
The Grafton U3A Committee has started communicating remotely via a platform called ZOOM which is showing good promise as a place where different small groups can keep in touch by a video link. Every participant needs a computer with a camera (it could be a laptop or desk top or tablet). Not every group would be interested in using this platform for various reasons, and not every group member may have access to a computer, but I feel quite a few of our members could find the platform very useful as a means of keeping in touch with each other.
Nick Reeve, a member of our Committee, has done a great job of familiarising himself with the system and arranging our initial committee meetings. He has also started to conduct a few meetings with the Climate Change Group. He would be available to help any group leader to set up a ZOOM group and can be contacted on 0408001541. Another one of our members, Sue Hereford Ashley, has also been assisting us with these early committee meetings. She has had ample experience over the past few years setting up ZOOM meetings around Australia within Toastmasters and is keen to see U3A members become familiar with the system. You can contact her for assistance on 0401548895.
I am including several attachments prepared by Nick which you should find useful.
Please consider whether this style of communication could be of benefit to your group and discuss the issue with your members. All members of each group would need to agree to sharing email addresses.
Good luck and stay healthy
Alysan Pender
President, Grafton U3A