President’s Column – July 2020

Peter Hockley: Ice

We have had three months of cabin fever without a physical monthly club night. So I hope you will be able to make it to our next meeting at the clubrooms on 20 July. Of course this meeting will be one of those ‘must go to’ events as we will be showing all
the entries in the Trenna Packer Salver Competition and announcing the winning club. Will it be NPS this year? Come along and see.
As you know, during the Covid lockdown, we held virtual club nights via the Zoom network. These were all well attended and it was nice to see several of our out-of-town members linked in to these meetings. Obviously, this was a great way for them to join
in, whereas otherwise they wouldn’t get the opportunity to do so.
In the future perhaps we should include some Zoom meetings in our events programme so all members have the opportunity to participate. Virtual field trips were another feature of the lockdown and, again, I’m sure we could arrange more of these.
During lockdown we lost some traction in arranging field trips because we didn’t know how long lockdown would last. We still have 11 events organised for the remainder of 2020. It’s just not quite as many as we would like. However, we do now need to seriously think about field trips for next year. After all, field trips are one of the main ingredients that make NPS a cool club to belong to. It’s all about the camaraderie, the learning and the coffee!
So, if you have a favourite place you would like to share, or anywhere else, we need members to put their hand up and say ‘Yes, I can do this.’ Whether it be a mid-week, whole day or multi day event, with the assistance of our Field Trip Coordinator, organising a field trip is a simple exercise. Think about it.

See you soon

Peter Hockley