Submitted by Dianne McD.
On Tuesday, September 27th, we started our new MPS 2022-23 year with our very first Hybrid Guild meeting. Now that we’re coming out of the COVID pandemic, we’re hearing about hybrid meetings quite often. But what does that mean?
Just for curiosity’s sake, I looked up the definition of hybrid. The dictionary on my Google search app defines it as:
a thing made by combining two different elements; of mixed character; composed of mixed parts
So, I would say our hybrid meetings are created by mixing the elements of an in-person meeting with the elements of a Zoom meeting.
About a year ago, the MPS Board started discussing whether or not to offer hybrid meetings to our membership in the future. Pretty soon, we were leaning in favor of mixing our in-person meetings with our Zoom platform. Why? Because we could see the many advantages of hybrid meetings. And because we LOVE our members!
- We discovered we could have a greater variety of program speakers from around the country when using our Zoom platform, thereby greatly improving our monthly Guild meetings and without the cost of travel expenses for the speakers.
- We have several members that don’t like to drive after dark-especially when it’s stormy and rainy.
- We have members that live in Southern Oregon, Central Oregon, Nevada, Utah, and Kansas–in other words, nowhere near Beaverton, Oregon.
But—
- We also have members that don’t care for virtual meetings one bit.
- We have members that yearn for social human contact in the quilting world.
- We have members that enjoy the tactile experience of viewing things in person.
Once the decision was made to move forward with hybrid Guild meetings, equipment was purchased and practice meetings were scheduled. We set our sights on September 27th to be our roll-out evening.
How did our first Hybrid meeting go? Not too bad! And the best part is, we’ll just get better at it as we go along.
So, if you want to end your day in your jammies with your favorite beverage in hand while listening to an inspiring speaker and gazing at beautiful quilts over Zoom, then you’re in luck. On the other hand, if you just need to get out of the house and sit next to another living, breathing human being while you’re listening to the same speaker and gazing at the same beautiful quilts, then we’ve got you covered.
MPS will continue to offer virtual-only meetings on the first three Tuesdays of the month and you can learn more about those meetings by clicking here. But our formal Guild meetings, which are held on the 4th Tuesday of each month, will be a hybrid-style meeting. You can check out our upcoming October meeting by clicking here. It looks like it will be a lot of fun.
Did you attend our first hybrid meeting? How did you attend? On Zoom or in person? Let us know what you thought about it in the comments below.
I had signed up to go to the inperson meeting, changed my mind at the last minute, but did not have the zoom connection. Should I have signed up for both? marilynh
No, you should have received a Zoom link no matter which option you chose to attend. Several people chose to attend in person and later changed their minds. In the future, on the day of the meeting we’ll resend the links to everyone who is registered (either way) so the links will be near the top of everyone’s inbox. Sorry you had to miss the meeting!
Attending in person was so fun. This group of creative people has been such a “lifetime” for me during the pandemic. Thankful that we can still connect, inspire and support each other in this new way of meeting.