Elaine Horemans on Guild during COVID19

Elaine Horemans on Guild during COVID19

Changes to the Guild during COVID19

Elaine Horemans talks about the challenges the guild experienced during the pandemic and how it benefited from online meetings.

Jung-Ah Kim

Elaine Horemans

Zoom

The Guild has still been operating, I think quite well, virtually. And we have continued with our Guild Challenge, for example, which is something that we can do personally at home. The fact that the Guild has gone virtual has been interesting, because a large proportion of our membership is elderly. And often, not always, but often less technologically aware, or able. For me, I was afraid of learning how to use Zoom, you know how everybody is at first. And so of course, I got my daughter to show me and learned how to do it thinking that if I don't, I'm going to get left behind. And when I go on to the Zoom meetings with the Guild, I discovered that those who took that challenge on and learn how to use Zoom are connecting with each other, and participating in the Guild, and those who haven't had that opportunity or ability are missing out. And it's a shame because a lot of our older, more knowledgeable people are not connecting the way they used to. Not even the older ones, sometimes, well I have a friend that doesn't just because she doesn't have the bandwidth, she's rural. And there's all kinds of reasons. So it's challenging in this day and age. And I'm really glad that I was able to figure out zoom, because for me, it works. I was able to participate in the online virtual seminar this year as well. I can connect with friends, I can do a number of things, which thanks to Zoom, you know, we can do now, but getting that technological barrier down is challenging and actually I should say kudos to the members of the Guild that have made that possible because, you know, we certainly need leaders, President, Secretary tech advisors, all the people that have made this possible have really done an excellent job at trying to keep us together during this really difficult time.