The group tested Zoom as a venue for videoconferencing during the pandemic. It seemed to work for all! The Book Club members were glad to see each other, even virtually!
After some details about Zoom protocol, the group discussed last month's book a little. Ideas brought up included the question as to why The Power and the Glory was considered Graham Greene's masterpiece, and how readers felt about the gloom of the story and the flaws of the characters. Dennis put a positive spin on the tale, stating that although the priest wasn't a strong person or priest, there were indications by the end of the book that the Church had influenced people's lives.
The meeting lasted 40 minutes, and the free version of Zoom closed the meeting. There is a warning 10 minutes before the meeting closes. This isn't definite, but it seems that if the meeting closes before the 40 minutes is up, then everyone in the meeting can rejoin the meeting for another 40 minutes by each one going back to the original invitation they received and clicking on the original link they used to join the meeting. We have not tested this. What we did test was starting a new Zoom meeting and sending everyone a new invitation, so that anyone who wanted to continue visiting could meet again. It took approximately 5 minutes, and several of us chatted virtually for a while. Virtually amiably, amiably virtually?
We might try Zoom again, or we might try another venue that doesn't have such a stringent time limit.
However, a veteran of virtual conferencing during the pandemic claims that when everyone in a group receives a message asking which of 15 venues they prefer, it just gets annoying. We will try to choose a workable venue and send everyone instructions as to how to use it. AT THIS TIME (APRIL 24th),WE DO PLAN TO MEET AGAIN VIRTUALLY ON THE THIRD MONDAY IN MAY, AT 1:00 PM. Venue will be announced via email and on the left side of the blog.
Good reads was, of course, our topic of further discussion until the meeting closed. The first 12 books at the top of the list of "Books Mentioned" in the left column on the blog are ones that members have been reading lately. These are all good candidates for reading and for nominating!
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