Virtual monthly meetings anyone?

[tscaptain]

Following our first virtual meeting this evening I have just sent out this email to those taking part. If you want to join in the next one let me know (Next Sunday 1930)


Dear all,
Many thanks for joining in. Very lively and good fun and a useful trial of the technology. As all of us senior citizens managed to get it to function, it clearly is a platform even the most IT challenged of us can use.

I will set up another meeting, same time, same place next Sunday. As we all agreed, I think, to get something more beneficial than just a general chinwag and share our experiences of online grocery shopping, we need a specific agenda and a short presentation. For example maybe we (Keith and I) could do a short piece on last year's WOTY as we have a good library of photos. Clive could show us how to change the brake pads on a Macan. SWS could explain what the hell Morris men get up to! Andy could talk to us about his 964 engine rebuild. We could start each meeting with a resume of the current state of (Club) play, viz a viz the virus/social distancing etc. I will also pester Kevin at PC Exeter to explore the Taycan video option. ( I doubt they will be run off their feet for a while) And so on.

The more members taking part in any one of these will increase the need for (mainly) a single speaker, I think. Today with 10 of us it seemed about the most we could just have random inputs?

If you have any thoughts or suggestions and/or are willing to volunteer to do one of these please get back to me.

I will speak or email HQ tomorrow and suggest that they either give us the money for a paid sub to Zoom (so that we're not up against the clock) or, failing that, take it out of the Region budget. We're not using it for much else at the moment.

Good to see you all - it seems like months already - and let's hope we can all duck this until it a) goes away or b) they come up with a vaccine pdq.

Best wishes

Alan

 

[keithy]

Hi,
I hardly ever visit the Forum - high time I started, methinks.

I think that the video conference meeting was a worthwhile exercise. Maintaining the rules of engagement is, as Ralph says, essential in such a large number of (enthusiastic, if not noisy) members.

Let's go for lively presentations, slideshows, virtual tours, any factory visit pictures to see (I'd love that), any content gratefully received, guys.

just let us know via the usual channels.

By the way, I went out for a blast in the Porsche this morning, just a local round trip to Roger Bray's and back. Still good.

 

[Lancerlot]

C

I hardly ever visit the Forum - high time I started, methinks.

Absolutely, Club officials all need to support the Club forum. []
Regards,

Clive

 

[tscaptain]

Next virtual meeting planned for 1930 on Sunday 29th. I have sent out invitations to those who joined in last Sunday. Let me know if you want to be included.

Now, more than ever the Forum and other media are such an important part of keeping our Porsche community alive and well. Do try and join in which way suits you and remember, being part of the Club is about participating and contributing as well as all the other good stuff.

 

[tscaptain]

We had a Regional organiser's video conference last night and very good it was too. 22 participants. Nice to see that, along with R26, we are the pioneers in the regions trying out this way of keeping spirits up and Club life ticking over.

Any more wanting to join in on Sunday at 1800?

 

[ralphmusic]

Alan,

I have clashing engagement on Sunday for a virtual beer and sausages event to replace an annual post Essen Show barbecue so will not now be joining the R15's.

My virtual diary is filling up so rapidly that I'll have little time to drive the car!

Ralph

 

[tscaptain]

Zoom video meetings.
As you know we have started holding these online meetings - the next at 1800 on the 29th.
After last night's conference for officials, the Club has decided to roll this out to all Regions using a Club account.
Q. When is the best time/day to hold our meetings? Keep the same day as our monthly meetings would have been - 2nd Wed evening? Actually, I would like to hold them fortnightly to keep the spirits up!(assuming we can find enough topics)

 

[ralphmusic]

Alan,

I am not a regular on the monthly meets but would suggest staying with a routine and adding an interim one same day & time mid meeting month.

 

[tscaptain]

Brave New World, eh Maurice?!
We will try but it's still very much in it's infancy as far as most of us are concerned. I think there are some basic rules (protocol) that need to be laid down and observed. For example muting your mic when not speaking. Having a method to indicate wanting to speak and so on. Otherwise it seems it will descend into a muffled free for all and the ensuing difficulty understanding what the hell is going on!
I think it will work better if we have a presentation rather that just general chit chat.
We'll see... I certainly don't envisage any suicides just yet....[]

 

[tscaptain]

How's everyone doing? Funny how weeks normally fly by and now time seems suspended for most of us. I imagine the opposite is true for all the wonderful people keeping things going in the NHS, food supply, deliveries and so on. On behalf of all us oldies on gardening/polishing duties - THANK YOU!

The difficult news is that we are still climbing the mountain with the summit some way off yet but there is a summit.

Remember that the Club is trying to provide a bit of relief through these difficult times with the facility to interact with your fellow members through the Forum, the FB group and our video meetings, the next of which is 1800 tonight. Future meetings will be at regular intervals but after this one the next will be on what would have been Club night - 8th April.

It goes without saying but I will say it anyway - stay safe and keep well.

 

[ralphmusic]

See this twitter link that shows one of the dangers of video calls..


https://twitter.com/joshuaray/status/1242441412500525062?s=21

For a bit a light relief

 

[n8ony]

Alan
Useful meeting last night, nice to hear from all those participating. Look forward to the next one.

The homepage for R15 is also looking much better and more user friendly. Thanks for all your‘s and Keith’s Hard work for the region throughout this national crisis.

 

[tscaptain]

Thanks Tony. Hopefully after the newsletter goes out on Wed we can attract a few more to join the next one.

Judging by the general discussion last night I think one event we can run, after this is all over, would be a driving tour to visit everyone's garden to pick the best maintained.[]

I thought the meeting went pretty well for just our second go and, as you say, good to hear and see our pals. Also great to have the Community Director join us for this one so that other Regions can be encouraged to do the same.

I think I can see a general format emerging for these already. A "round the table" input from everyone to begin with followed by a presentation, the latter being key to keeping the interest level up. All ideas/offers gratefully received.

 

[tscaptain]

Next virtual meeting on 8th April, 1800. Part of this will be a fun game and the 25 already signed up will have received details. We are exceedingly grateful to Caitlin and George in R2 for sharing this idea with us. The game...

The game - £100k Garage
In the game we’re planning to play you have a fictional budget to spend assembling a dream garage of cars. You'll need to trawl the classifieds armed with your notepad to assemble your collection!

Within a budget of £100k and not a penny more, you must have:

At least one ‘Shed’ - a rough and ready machine costing a maximum of £1,500. E.g. 2001 Mini Cooper S - it's got a supercharger and it's £1,400!

At least one ‘Brave Pill’ - usually something with prodigious performance available for a fraction of its original value. A car you'd need to be seriously brave to spend your money on in real life... but it could be so worth it if you did. E.g. BMW E90 M3 with 147k miles on the clock for £14,900.

At least one ‘Classic’ - we're talking properly classic here, pre 1980 only! E.g. Jaguar XJ6 Series 1 for £17,995.

At least one 'Still on Sale' - i.e. a car you can still buy new today. It may have been in showrooms for many years, and received a facelift or two, but it must be a model you could still find at a dealer at the time of writing. E.g. used 718 Boxster for £30k qualifies, as it's still on sale new.

Beyond that you're free to choose anything you like from the thousands of cars in the classified ads! Just try to spend as close to your £100k budget as possible.

So get your notepad out, do your research, and come along to the Virtual club night with your dream garage listed to make everyone else green with envy!
[FONT=arial, helvetica neue, helvetica, sans-serif, serif, emojifont"]You can take screenshots, copy photos or anything you like to show off your collection. Zoom has the ability to "share screen" so you can show the cars if you have them saved on your computer - but don't worry if that's an IT challenge too far - just a verbal description will be great.

Some good places to try are:

• PistonHeads
• AutoTrader
• Car and Classic

[FONT=arial, helvetica neue, helvetica, sans-serif, serif, emojifont"]We hope you'll enjoy this and provide some light relief in these dark and isolated days.
We're still finding our way with these meetings so please bear with us if it's not completely slick! Email us if you want to take part (Keith and I will) or if you have any questions.

 

[tscaptain]

Ok, I've just finished my £100k garage. ?? Only took about 45 mins on Autotrader and Car and Classic.. Only 4 of us doing this so far for next Wed Zoom meeting. Anyone else want to have a go at this? I found it a lot of fun and with all of the search parameters you can play with on these sites it's quite easy to whittle each category down to relatively few cars.
Need up to another 6 participants, please??

 

[tscaptain]

Got 6 of us doing the £100k garage so far. Could do with a few more from those joining the meeting on Wed. C'mon chaps, bit of fun![]

 

[Lancerlot]

I chose mine earlier this evening. []
Regards,

Clive

 

[tscaptain]

I chose mine earlier this evening. []
Regards,

Clive

Looking forward to it - should be entertaining!

 

[tscaptain]

The next virtual meeting will be on the 22nd April at 1800. Andy Moss, owner of SCS Porsche, has very kindly volunteered to give a presentation on a 964 restoration. Let me know if you want to join the meeting and haven't received the email invitation.

 

[Geoff_Fields]

Hi Alan, could I gatecrash the presentation please? Maybe ask Andy to do a repeat next month for Dorset region.
We only had 12 login to our virtual meet last night out of over 600 invitations sent! So maybe content not attractive enough yet.