A week ago the Stony Nightingales WI – Coffee Club met for the first time during COVID-19 via a What’s App group, which went very smoothly in the end.

Today, because there were more than 4 of us, we had to move to a different platform.

​This didn’t become evident until we were all poised with our hot/cold drinks ready for our weekly natter. Some of us were there in the What’s App group chatting away catching up with each other’s news. 

One of the ladies celebrated her birthday yesterday (27.03.20), and she was updating us after her husband brought her the last slice of her birthday cake – to munch on during the call. However, the admin of the group kept calling, in a bid to connect other Coffee Club members to the existing call.

However, it transpires What’s App doesn’t support video calls with more than 4 people. So, the administrator who has all of our email addresses, decided to set up a Zoom meeting.

We were informed to be poised for further nattering at 2pm today. 

We received the email, and I was able to connect. Zoom for me is not an unfamiliar platform. However, for other ladies, connecting on their iPads/tablets, it was their first time; connecting to a virtual group of friends – who they can see face-to-face and have a conversation. 

One of the ladies who was originally on the What’s App call, chose not to attend the Zoom call, because she doesn’t like/trust downloading additional communication tools onto her laptop. With this in mind, this lady was not Zooming with us. 

However, there were 5 of us zooming. We were given a virtual tour of one of the ladies new homes (she recently bought a new place – downsized, approximately 5 weeks ago). It was the equivalent version of Through the Keyhole.

What was nice from my perspective been at COVID-19 WI Coffee Club today, was hearing how fellow WI members are learning new tech skills (e.g. using Zoom/virtual meetings), and witnessing their excitement that they had been able to connect successfully.

More Zooming next week 🙂