Moving On - We Meet Again

Covid-19?  What’s that?  If only we could really say this and mean it, but the reality of the pandemic meant that all our fundraising events, and all our face-to-face meetings were banned and the only way we could keep in touch was by Zoom video conferences.  

Not all bad – we managed better attendance at our meetings than when we met face-to-face, and we were able to get some great speakers – even from the USA.  But we missed each other’s company and longed to get back together again.  The only problem, our venue at Reids had closed down so we needed to find another meeting place.

The Best Deal Out of Town

Keith Wood has traditionally organised our venues and negotiated the best deal, so naturally we all turned to him again with a bunch of suggestions and set him loose …Keith sifted through the options and settled on the Beauvoir Arms at Downham – a little way out of town, but with a convenient private room and a willing host.  

Keith spoke to the manager and did a site visit accompanied by IPP Peter Greene.  The room was suitable, and although there was an awkwardly located pillar, judicious table spacing should avoid any issues from that.  The people were helpful and offered us a two-course meal with a choice of any food from the menu except the chef’s specials at their lunchtime special price of £14.95.  Arch negotiator Keith did the deal – coffee/tea included and for only £14 – just £1.00 more than Reids 18 months ago. What a great deal!.  

Not only that, but Wi-Fi service in the room was excellent – over 60 Mbps and well able to support a Zoom service if we wanted a remote speaker at one of our meetings, or, if we needed hybrid meetings with some of our members only dialling in.

So how has it gone?

We’ve now had a few meetings and members have generally praised the service and the food.  It’s early days yet but technical issues have been resolved.  We only have physical challenges such as the level of light in the room, and we are still experimenting with the best table layout to get the best slide show and so everybody can see the speaker, but things are looking good at the moment.

We’ve had our first speakers, and that all went very well.  No problems with hearing what was said, everybody could see and they all seemed to be at ease as they did their talks.  Thumbs Up from them.

We hope it will serve us well.