GBA 2021 - Fall Flippingbook

GEORGIAN BAY ASSOCIATION

Keeping Members Engaged During COVID

By Liz Phillips, UPDATE Editor

H ow do you keep a community engaged and connected when you can’t meet up in person in your usual ways? If you’re anything like our GBA member associations, you get creative. We wanted to share some of the things our associations have been getting up to online or outside while staying safe. AGMs Go Virtual The most common change we’ve had to make has been moving our annual general meetings (AGM) online. GBA has been providing a free Zoom service to member associations to ensure that this important process has continued smoothly. Associations report that in many cases the virtual AGMs are even better attended than in-person meetings – but everyone agrees that the important social element of the traditional AGM is missing. Keeping in Touch Long before COVID-19 made virtual communication a necessity, many of us had already started using online communication tools to keep our membership informed of association news and events. But these have become more crucial to maintaining a dialogue, and members are looking out for their regular updates more often. In particular, use of social media has increased to stay in touch about issues affecting local communities.

Fun and Games This is where we saw the resourcefulness of our member associations really coming through. Here are just a few of the initiatives we heard about: ≥West Carling Association (WCA) held a virtual stone painting contest for kids, and a virtual scavenger hunt. ≥ Another WCA member flew a different flag every day for 10 days, posting a photo online and having people identify it. ≥ The South Channel Association (SCA) switched up their Art on the Dock art show by putting the whole thing online. ≥ SCA also hosted Quench the Flames, a socially distanced poker run to raise awareness about cottage fire protection. Members visited five different checkpoints by boat, where volunteers drew a card on their behalf and recorded the result. ≥ Bay of Islands Community Association held a hike in Heaven’s Gate, a large area in the La Cloche Mountains that was recently acquired by the Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy. Many of the members who made the hike contributed to helping protect this area for generations to come. We enjoyed hearing about how you’ve come together despite the pandemic and we hope to hear more about your escapades in the future.

Photo: Allison Needham

Photo: Allison Needham

A float plane lands in front of the Tucker cottage in Snug Harbour, where a flag is flying for the WCA’S contest. For the answer to which flag it is, please turn to page 14.

Two rocks painted by winner of the under-12 category Sophie Needham are displayed for the WCA stone-painting contest.

www.georgianbay.ca

GBA UPDATE Fall 2021

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