- April 26, 2024
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There was a time when meeting friends for breakfast wouldn’t be such a big deal. But when the Kiwanis Club of Longboat Key gathered at the Lazy Lobster on Sept. 10 it was a momentous occasion — the club’s first in-person meeting since July.
As the organizations of Longboat Key navigate meetings and making a difference in a pandemic, there’s a wide spectrum of ways they make that happen. Kiwanians meet in person at the Lazy Lobster, Rotarians meet via Zoom, and the Chamber of Commerce is trying to split the difference. It’s all about the comfort level for the leaders and members — in regards to the pandemic and with technology.
“It’s so personal for everybody, so we have to respect everyone’s choices,” chamber President Gail Loefgren said. “It will be interesting to see who does show up. It’s 50-50 all over chambers on who wants to come back.”
Kiwanis President Lynn Larson has been a bit tentative to get together again. Despite the relatively low numbers of coronavirus cases on Longboat Key throughout the pandemic, she knows it’s still a real concern and would hate for a Kiwanis meeting to be the reason someone gets sick.
“People want to get out,” Larson said. “I’m the one that’s being a little hesitant and holding back a little bit.”
While other clubs and organizations have found their stride and moved entirely virtual, like the Longboat Key Democratic Club and the Rotary Club of Longboat Key, it’s not always feasible for Larson and the Kiwanians.
Club business is done in person, with only a few emails sent here and there. Kiwanis is a small club and its members are older Longboaters who have never really done business as virtually as it is in 2020. Larson wants to learn Zoom but isn’t sure how the rest of the club would take to it.
The Rotarians, however, seem to have cracked the virtual code. A few members devoted themselves to figuring out the Zoom room in the early days, and though the first few meetings were like comedy sketches, member Carol Erker said, they got it down pat now. The format works well for their meetings, which are usually led by a speaker. As potential speakers got more comfortable with virtual presentations, the club was able to figure it out, as well.
“We’ve considered going back [to in-person meetings],” Erker said. “We would fit in the All Angels parish hall even with reduced capacity, but ... we’ve gotten so used to this Zoom we’d have to see how absent members could participate. Zoom has gone so well for us that when things are closer to a new normal we will probably use this sort of format in the summer months anyway, so we are able to keep in touch with snowbirds and travelers.”
As both the Kiwanians and chamber members gear up to get together again (with a small networking event at the end of the month), it’s all happening at the Lazy Lobster. Owner Michael Garey is both a Kiwanis member and a chamber member, and with a recent cleanliness award, leaders see it as a safe spot to reconvene.
“When I thought about the possibility of us having our first meeting in June I thought [we would have it there] since (Garey) knew the importance of social distancing,” Larson said. “I would not have had the meeting if it had not been there.”
As for Loefgren, she’s determined to have the chamber’s first in-person gathering since before the pandemic. Zoom isn’t keeping members together too well, since chambers are so much about face-to-face networking and passing business cards around, but members aren’t getting a lot of benefit from staring at a screen, Loefgren said.
“We’re going to do our best to get people back together again,” Loefgren said. “It’s hard to Zoom for everything. Other chambers are finding that the more Zoom things you have the fewer people start to show up.”
There’s no real consensus on how networking, meeting or even socializing will look on Longboat Key in the near future, but with small in-person gatherings or virtual Zoom rooms, communal bonds will find a way for Longboat’s social souls.
“People want to be together again,” Loefgren said.
