Thank you Marissa again and to everyone who helped organise this. Initially, I had some doubts how this would work virtually with such a big number of people, but luckily I was wrong. I was impressed how smoothly and efficiently it went and can't wait for future ones.
I would like to to address your points with some brief pros and cons vis-a-vis in-person meetings:
Pros:
- As you said, having people outside London or whose work/home location may not normally be optimal for physical after work events to join.
- Having the chance to speak to more people from different levels and backgrounds within the society, while in in-person events, people are normally tempted to stick with familiar faces they know from before.
- Having people more engaged in the conversation and in other people's experience, given the nature of virtual calls :).
Cons:
- The only thing I could think of is that due to time limitations, it was difficult to connect in such brief windows. This is completely understood given the one-hour time slot and everyones' other commitments. I was thinking maybe a good way to tackle this is to have fewer people in breakout rooms (3-4 people if possible), which will allow more time for experience sharing.
With regards to topics, it would be helpul if senior team and board members and SIG heads could give other volunteers a synopsis of what their role and future plans entail to help engage and prepare future calibres within the society. I suggest this could take place before people head to breakout rooms for example.
Finally, my answer is a definite YES! I can't wait to attend more of these virtual events, maybe even after the lockdown is over.
Stay safe all and looking forward to meeting again virtually and in-person.
Mo
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Mohamed Massoud
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-06-2020 09:42
From: Marissa Charles
Subject: Virtual Volunteer networking success!
@Timothy Nuding, @Matthew Lonergan @Weiyen Hung @Daniel Murray @Monica Filkova @Andrew Parry @Jordan Griffiths @Chipo Hove @Mathew Szeto @Andrew McCarthy @Christian Schmidt @Benjamin Elvidge @Samuel Betha @David Scally @Aude-Shizuka Suga, @Prashanth Reddy Vanga @Hinesh Karia, @Vishrut Chatrath @Vanessa MacGregor@Vanessa MacGregor @Michelle CHEN @Nikolaos Giannoulis @Pryesh Emrith @Aamir Ansari @Sangeeta Chawla @James Chu @Isaac Tabner @Mohamed Massoud @Folake Anjorin @Pavel Laberko @João Gabriel Tiburcio Dias Belotti @Sandaruwani De Silva @Jane Coffey
A massive thank you to you all for joining @William Goodhart, @Ashley Ramsay @Anna Pinch @Caio Domingues and myself on Thursday. We hope you enjoyed meeting in a different way.
I have tagged you all as a mechanism for you to connect with each other. We weren't able to swap business cards so this is the next best thing I can do for you to connect. (I have had to use maximum brain capacity to remember everyone on the call - so my apologies if I haven't tagged you - i know I'm missing 4 people)
The highlight for me was having volunteers who live outside of London join the throng!
What was your highlight?
Would you like to have more calls like this whilst we await the green light to return to work?
What would you like to do/talk about?
Let me know by replying to this post!
Happy Lockdown Week 12. Stay in touch and remember the CFA UK staff team is here to support you and your volunteer groups if you need it!
Best wishes
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Marissa Charles
Volunteer Development Manager
CFA UK
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