This week marks the first anniversary of Stumperlowe Probus Club’s decision to suspend all meetings, outside visits and other gatherings for the duration of the Coronavirus pandemic. We held our last face-to-face meeting at Fulwood Church lounge on Mon 16th March 2020, a week ahead of the Government-imposed first national lockdown.
Most people assumed that things would be back to normal after, perhaps, 12 weeks. Nobody could have imagined that we would still be in this unprecedented situation after 12 months.
But things are looking up. Infection rates are falling, and the Covid-19 vaccination programme has gone better than anybody could have hoped, with a staggering 24 million people having received at least one dose of the vaccine.
We are now looking forward to the remainder of 2021 with renewed optimism. As the year unfolds, we will hopefully be able to get back to normal club activities such as our regular Monday morning presentations, outside visits (our last was to the Sheffield Assay Office just days before the March 2020 lockdown) and social occasions such as our annual luncheon and more informal get-togethers.
However, the relevant easing of restrictions will come just too late to allow our planned AGM and luncheon to be held on 10th May, as originally hoped. An announcement will be made shortly regarding the AGM, and the luncheon is expected to revert to its more traditional November slot.
While we have been denied physical contact, our programme of virtual Zoom meetings and presentations, normally on the first and third Monday of each month, will continue until such time as restrictions are lifted and our committee believes that it is safe to resume normal gatherings.
Thanks to the miracle of modern technology our members have had the opportunity to listen to a variety of interesting speakers who have given us hour-long talks on an eclectic range of subjects. These Zoom meetings have been more popular than we dared hope, with a record ‘attendance’ for one recent talk of 51 members and four guests from a total membership of 66 people.
But we are, of course, looking forward to getting our entire membership back together under one roof for our weekly meetings, when our chairman will once again be able to declare: “If it’s Monday morning, it must be PROBUS!”
Graham Snowdon (Hon Sec), on behalf of your committee.