By Mike Souza
Forced to cancel its April monthly meeting because of the coronavirus pandemic, the North Shore Numismatic Society (NSNS) instead went online to host its first meeting using the video-conferencing platform Zoom.
In early April, the NSNS – located in Vancouver, B.C. – announced it had to cancel that month’s meeting; however, the club’s resourceful webmaster Julian Ticehurst decided to try conducting a meeting through Zoom. Moderated by Ticehurst and held on April 21, the online meeting drew 24 participants (compared to an average of 25-35 at recent regular meetings).
Ticehurst also arranged a guest speaker – Bekircan Taberer, of the Vancouver Ancient Coin Club – whose presentation was entitled “Pre-Coinage Economies and the Invention of Money.” A 15-lot online auction was also conducted by NSNS Past President Lynn Balmer.
Because Zoom has a limit of 100 attendees, invitations were only sent to club members and a few members of other clubs. Invitees were cautioned about keeping the meeting ID and password private to minimize the possibility of being disrupted by outsiders – also known as “Zoombombing,” which has drawn national media attention since early March, when the pandemic began forcing people to work and socialize from home.
The presentation was just over an hour long and was well-received by the attendees. The slightly below-average attendance could be due to many members owning desktop computers without the built-in cameras that laptops have and also a bit of reluctance to sign on because of unfamiliarity with the technology.
NEXT MEETING MAY 19
Because of its success, the NSNS will host another Zoom meeting on Tuesday, May 19.
A presentation prepared and shared by the London Numismatic Society entitled “Canadian Type Collection” will be shown during that meeting, which will run from 7 p.m.-9 p.m.
Club officials are working to establish more procedures and also find a way to expand its auction to allow attendees to post items. Hopefully, even more members will sign on at the next meeting.
Even though we cannot physically meet at this time, it was great to see everyone online and be able to continue our great hobby. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Julian for his initiative.
For more information, visit northshorenumismaticsociety.org.
– Mike Souza currently serves as the president, secretary and treasurer of the North Shore Numismatic Society.