41 Club
Don’t panic. It’s only lockdown.
Nerja 41 Club carries on
Despite the lockdown, 41 Club Nerja held its Annual General
Meeting in the middle of week four of the restrictions – with
29 members taking part. A new chairman and committee were
elected, and we made plans for the coming year. (How did we
do this without being arrested or denounced!)
And because we are all young at heart we incorporated another
fun element: when the outgoing chairman handed over he
leant forward to his camera offering the badge of office and
totally obscured the image. The new chairman then leant
forward into his camera, and when he drew back – lo and
behold!– he was now holding an almost identical badge. The
‘magic’ of technology… The possibilities are endless, and our
virtual AGM – or ‘VGM’ – ended with a toast when several
glasses of beer were ‘handed through the cloud’, some
miraculously turning into wine on the way!
41 Club is the club for past members of Round Table, which
had an upper age limit of 40. 41 Club members support the
activities and charitable efforts of their home Table but also
enjoy meetings and the fellowship of like-minded people from
other clubs.
Along the Costas in Spain there are several 41 Clubs and all ex-
Tablers are most welcome to join or just drop in. Some are
resident in Spain. Others spend large parts of the year here,
whilst others visit less often. Some just ‘drop in’ to a meeting
or a lunch, knowing they will be welcomed.
And when we had finished, we went back to our lockdown; in
Spain, in England, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, and
even as far away as Wales.
Lockdown and life in general can be fun if you choose to make
it so. And the show must go on.
Although 41 Club and Round Table are not specifically
charitable organisations, it is inevitable that when we get
together to enjoy ourselves, thoughts turn to helping others
and supporting the community.
Peter MacLeod.
New Virtual Chairman
41 Club Nerja
Last year Nerja 41 raised €440 to buy underwear and socks
wholesale for people in need in Malaga; the year before €500
for the local home for people with disabilities. Every Christmas
we collect toys and teddy bears.
But back to the story – how did we hold our AGM without
being arrested or denounced?
Any ex-Tabler interested in joining or just ‘dropping in’ to the
Nerja 41 Club please ring Peter on (0034) 678 059 288, or email
[email protected].
More details are on our website: http://41clubnerja.org/
Very simply. We used the free computer program ZOOM,
(there are others, or so I’m told!) set up by our web-master.
Each member logged in, and on the screen appeared the video
feeds from all the others, each in his own thumbnail image. We
then had a video conference in our own homes.
You may also wonder how we managed this without 28
enthusiastic members all talking at once, thus creating an
incomprehensible cacophony ... perhaps rather too similar to
normal meetings!
ZOOM has the clever feature that when someone speaks, the
border around his image lights up; and with so many
‘attending’ we also mostly observed the protocol to raise a hand
and then be invited to speak by the chairman.
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