13 thoughts on “Future Meetings Survey – Feb 2022”
Anne G.
I am truly enjoying our virtual club meetings. Re meeting in-person: I’m not a fan of driving at night, the chairs in our setting(s) have been uncomfortable, and the acoustics have been so poor that’s it’s often difficult to hear what fellow club members, speakers and judges are saying.
Most of our speakers during the pandemic have been computer-savvy, and their presentations have typically worked seamlessly.
Competition photos have been more true-to-form on Zoom than the projected versions at in-person meetings; so I feel that it’s more of an even playing field when all photos are displayed in the same manner. Also, using only digital versions saves members the expense and hassle of having their photos printed and matted. The only downside I see to all-digital competitions is that when a photo’s size is limited to 1000Kb, a great deal of picture detail can be lost. A printed version can be highly customized re size.
As mentioned above — although I think the idea of hybrid meetings is great, I foresee many technical difficulties ensuing when actually putting it to practice.
I have actually enjoyed being part of the club via zoom. The speakers and the competition seem to work especially well. I’m not sure how often I would attend in person meetings.
Thanks for doing the survey.
I have enjoyed the meetings recently being all virtual. The in-person screen is hard for me to see being short and the colors are worse than on my computer too. The demos in Photo Forum are MUCH easier to follow virtually. In practice, demos in person only work one on one, due to crowding around the laptops being difficult. If demos are done on the big screen, I find it hard to see the icons even so.
Everyone transporting their individual prints to a local judge sounds like an imposition on the judge.
I am being rather cautious about COVID compared to other people (considering loosening up with rates dropping for now), so I am a bit ambivalent about in-person meetings. Vaccinated, boostered, and masked sounds good to me but it still depends.
More outdoor socials would be great to make up for the short shrift on socialising. We could in-person compare camera equipment.
I think a hybrid approach might work well. For competition nights, where we are mostly listening to the judge commenting on images, I think virtual works quite well. I think viewing the images on my monitor at home while listening to the commentary is actually preferred. For speakers, I like that when we go virtual we can bring in speakers from anywhere — not just local folks. That all said, I really miss meeting face to face. I think demonstrations and break out sessions are best done in person and face to face so that people can ask questions in real time. And if a speaker is local, we should definitely do that face to face. I think hybrid is something we should consider long term.
I agree with others that for now a hybrid approach is probably best while we wait to see how the pandemic progresses. The virtual presentations do indeed make it much easier for speakers. One hopes that sooner than later we will be able to get back together in person, but not everyone will be ready at the same time. For now, I would want everyone in masks and preferably everyone fully vaccinated. Regarding #2, I done very little in the way of prints and to date all my competition work has been digital.
When COVID risks go down, which may be a while, I’d be interested in in-person Photo Forum, with the option of bringing in a topic expert via Zoom. I think speaker nights have gone well online, for the most part, and I’m ambivalent about competition because I don’t enter prints, though I did enjoy seeing those that were entered. I do miss seeing everyone in person and look forward to the day that is possible, safely, again
I’d be willing to attend meetings with required masks. For me at least, I think this would be safe, after the current surge is over.
If we can get judges to come in person, I think the competition should be in person and have prints too. For speakers I think Zoom has a big advantage, in that we can get speakers from all over the country. For Photo Forum, there are advantages to both Zoom and in-person, so perhaps we could alternate from one month to the next?
On hybrid meetings there are a lot of technical challenges. It can work okay for a speaker, but it’s hard to do if you want to capture a group conversation. We would need good video camera(s) and microphone(s), and we would need to know if Northwood Presbyterian’s space has good Wifi.
I like your option to go HYBRID, and would prefer that. I would only go to in person meetings if I was 100% certain that the Covid is no longer a threat. But also, I think the Zoom meetings have worked really well – in a way even better than in person meetings. Through the Zoom meetings, one can see the images and hear the speakers/judges properly, and since I have an allergy to damp and dust I need no longer have those problems (in the past, at in person meetings at the church I used to have big problems with my allergy).
Thank you for fantastic presentations/programs, and for doing this survey, and take care.
I am truly enjoying our virtual club meetings. Re meeting in-person: I’m not a fan of driving at night, the chairs in our setting(s) have been uncomfortable, and the acoustics have been so poor that’s it’s often difficult to hear what fellow club members, speakers and judges are saying.
Most of our speakers during the pandemic have been computer-savvy, and their presentations have typically worked seamlessly.
Competition photos have been more true-to-form on Zoom than the projected versions at in-person meetings; so I feel that it’s more of an even playing field when all photos are displayed in the same manner. Also, using only digital versions saves members the expense and hassle of having their photos printed and matted. The only downside I see to all-digital competitions is that when a photo’s size is limited to 1000Kb, a great deal of picture detail can be lost. A printed version can be highly customized re size.
As mentioned above — although I think the idea of hybrid meetings is great, I foresee many technical difficulties ensuing when actually putting it to practice.
I have actually enjoyed being part of the club via zoom. The speakers and the competition seem to work especially well. I’m not sure how often I would attend in person meetings.
Thanks for doing the survey.
I have enjoyed the meetings recently being all virtual. The in-person screen is hard for me to see being short and the colors are worse than on my computer too. The demos in Photo Forum are MUCH easier to follow virtually. In practice, demos in person only work one on one, due to crowding around the laptops being difficult. If demos are done on the big screen, I find it hard to see the icons even so.
Everyone transporting their individual prints to a local judge sounds like an imposition on the judge.
I am being rather cautious about COVID compared to other people (considering loosening up with rates dropping for now), so I am a bit ambivalent about in-person meetings. Vaccinated, boostered, and masked sounds good to me but it still depends.
More outdoor socials would be great to make up for the short shrift on socialising. We could in-person compare camera equipment.
I think a hybrid approach might work well. For competition nights, where we are mostly listening to the judge commenting on images, I think virtual works quite well. I think viewing the images on my monitor at home while listening to the commentary is actually preferred. For speakers, I like that when we go virtual we can bring in speakers from anywhere — not just local folks. That all said, I really miss meeting face to face. I think demonstrations and break out sessions are best done in person and face to face so that people can ask questions in real time. And if a speaker is local, we should definitely do that face to face. I think hybrid is something we should consider long term.
I agree with others that for now a hybrid approach is probably best while we wait to see how the pandemic progresses. The virtual presentations do indeed make it much easier for speakers. One hopes that sooner than later we will be able to get back together in person, but not everyone will be ready at the same time. For now, I would want everyone in masks and preferably everyone fully vaccinated. Regarding #2, I done very little in the way of prints and to date all my competition work has been digital.
Question 2 does not give me the option that I would like to answer.
When COVID risks go down, which may be a while, I’d be interested in in-person Photo Forum, with the option of bringing in a topic expert via Zoom. I think speaker nights have gone well online, for the most part, and I’m ambivalent about competition because I don’t enter prints, though I did enjoy seeing those that were entered. I do miss seeing everyone in person and look forward to the day that is possible, safely, again
I’d be willing to attend meetings with required masks. For me at least, I think this would be safe, after the current surge is over.
If we can get judges to come in person, I think the competition should be in person and have prints too. For speakers I think Zoom has a big advantage, in that we can get speakers from all over the country. For Photo Forum, there are advantages to both Zoom and in-person, so perhaps we could alternate from one month to the next?
On hybrid meetings there are a lot of technical challenges. It can work okay for a speaker, but it’s hard to do if you want to capture a group conversation. We would need good video camera(s) and microphone(s), and we would need to know if Northwood Presbyterian’s space has good Wifi.
I like your option to go HYBRID, and would prefer that. I would only go to in person meetings if I was 100% certain that the Covid is no longer a threat. But also, I think the Zoom meetings have worked really well – in a way even better than in person meetings. Through the Zoom meetings, one can see the images and hear the speakers/judges properly, and since I have an allergy to damp and dust I need no longer have those problems (in the past, at in person meetings at the church I used to have big problems with my allergy).
Thank you for fantastic presentations/programs, and for doing this survey, and take care.
A lot depends on pandemic status
Well done!
Please take a look at the choices under question 2.
Renee had the same remark. Please explain what other choices there should be.
Nice job on the survey. Thanks