As we approach the first anniversary of the start of the Coronavirus pan­demic, and with the New Year cel­eb­ra­tions behind us, we are now look­ing for­ward to the rest of 2021 with renewed optim­ism as vac­cin­a­tions are rolled out across the coun­try. By defin­i­tion we are at the upper end of the age scale, and sev­eral of our older and more vul­ner­able mem­bers have already received their first inocu­la­tions while the rest of us wait with bated breath.

As the year unfolds we will hope­fully be able to get back to normal club activ­it­ies. For many of us, our reg­u­lar Monday morn­ing meet­ings at Fulwood Church Lounge are the high­light of the week, but we have been denied this phys­ical con­tact since mid-March last year.

However, that does not mean we have been denied all face-to-face con­tact. Thanks to the mir­acle of modern tech­no­logy we have been enjoy­ing twice-monthly Zoom present­a­tions when a vari­ety of inter­est­ing speak­ers have given us hour-long talks on an eclectic range of sub­jects. These Zoom meet­ings have gone from strength to strength, and for our latest vir­tual get-together on Mon 18th January we had a record ‘attend­ance’ of 51 mem­bers and four guests.

Our list of forth­com­ing talks is now pub­lished up to Easter, and hope­fully by then we will not have much longer to wait before we can resume normal meet­ings with the whole mem­ber­ship, includ­ing those who have been unable to join us on Zoom, back under one roof.

Our list of other key dates for 2021 is now also pub­lished, but in the cur­rent situ­ation many of these are still sub­ject to con­firm­a­tion, includ­ing our pro­posed Annual General Meeting on 10th May and, in a depar­ture to our usual pro­gramme, the annual lunch­eon which will hope­fully follow it.

Regular meet­ings, and our pop­u­lar out­side visits which have also been on hold, will be resumed as soon as cir­cum­stances allow and our com­mit­tee believes it is safe to do so.

Graham Snowdon.  Hon Sec on behalf of your com­mit­tee.