As the COVID pandemic drags on seemingly intermittently, we have gone from “Two weeks to flatten the curve” to coming up on a full year of severe restrictions on in-person gatherings.
Many nonprofit and public service agencies have simply had to shut down: Youth sports leagues have been able to hold limited practices, but not games. Volunteer auxiliaries for our public libraries, museums, and city, county and state parks have simply gone on hiatus as those facilities have been shuttered.
Others have switched to online “virtual” meetings on platforms such as Zoom, GoToMeeting, Google, etc.
But more than 10 months into the shutdowns, it is getting more challenging by the week to keep our members – whether Scouting units or service club members – to participate in the virtual meetings.
The folks at The Events Calendar, whose website calendaring software we use here at Knights of Buena Creek for the Community Calendar, have put out a list of ways to help sustain enthusiasm for and participation in virtual events.
Among their suggestions are:
- Send multiple email reminders, with embedded links
- Include Q&A sessions at the end, or hold a raffle for those who attend
- Make sure you have the right moderator – someone with the personality to hold the (virtual) room’s attention.
You can read the whole article on The Events Calendar’s blog.