Prepare for Our Virtual Congress with August 20 Virtual Meeting Training!

“You did it!” says Hali Hammer, helping you on virtual meetings

By Darien De Lu
WILPF US President

August 2020

It’s time for all of us to get comfortable with virtual connection tools. In August 2021, for the first time, WILPF US will conduct our national Congress virtually!

Let’s freshen up our skills and our activism before then: On August 20, you can learn more about how to do virtual meetings – both conference calls and Zoom.

We’ve all learned how important virtual connections are to us. Some days, it can feel like just too much, to spend another day sheltering in your home (if you’re fortunate enough to be able to stay at home and have one to stay in). So what do you do? Connect with someone! A phone call with a friend can make such a difference!

We’ve all been making phone calls for years, without thinking of them as virtual connections. Now, in these COVID-19 times, we know that even though a virtual contact isn’t quite as good as an actual one, it’s still worth a lot!

As important as our personal connections are, so are our political ones – branch meetings, political rallies, educational events, and conferences. The Poor People’s Campaign united over three million of us at their virtual mass gathering and moral march on June 20. The July online Concert for Cuba gave us energizing dance music and inspiring messages, reminding us about the value of human and cultural sharing across borders.

If you’re a member of a WILPF branch or other local activist group, are you meeting virtually? If not, why not? Meetings are where we connect, in multiple ways. It’s easy, by phone (conference calls) and/or by computers, tablets, and smart phones (using video virtual meeting tools). 

Learn how to do both at our WILPF US class to be held on Thursday, August 20 at 5:30 pm PDT/ 7:30 pm CDT/ 8:30 pm EDT. The class, via a Maestro conference call, will orient participants on how to do conference calls (through https://www.freeconferencecall.com/ ) and visual virtual meetings (using free Zoom accounts). Click here to pre-register for this August 20 training.

And start planning now to set aside time in late August 2021, so you can fully participate in our WILPF US Congress! We’d like all WILPFers to attend our virtual Congress next year! No long, costly (and risky) plane flights; no pricy hotel or dorm rooms; no dietary challenges! For 2021, the registration fee will be lower than for an in-person Congress. Just be sure your WILPF membership is current!

At the Congress, we look forward to presentations and discussion by active branches and at-large members about what they are doing to be effective, even with pandemic restrictions. Your local activist groups can be meeting safely, by conference call or computer, to plan actions, maintain ties, and – of course – to discuss the many significant 75^th anniversaries this year. (Be inspired by the example and presentations of the WILPF Disarm/End Wars Committee. Their committee is using Zoom for its monthly webinars about those anniversaries; see the timeline of anniversaries and read more here.) 

If you’re interested in Zoom skills, get more pointers in two helpful step-by-step documents here. Created by activist Hali Hammer, who is also an award winning singer-songwriter, these guides (with a musical orientation) are extensively illustrated. Hali is also a founding member of Occupella, whose website offers many songs similar to those sung by the Raging Grannies.

WILPF members are activists, and our meetings are crucial, both for our political/activist work and for us as social beings. Too many of us are too alone for too much of the time these days. Get connected by learning more about meeting virtually; then you, like Hali, can still be active politically during COVID-19!