GJAS hold (or should I say held?) their meetings every 2 weeks on a Thursday at Gateshead Library with our last meeting being held in early March 2020, thanks to Covid. Early last year I was elected Chairman and at the same time I also became Treasurer. Three years ago I started a Facebook page and a Twitter account for the society, which hopefully helps us to raise the profile of the Society. We are just approaching 2,500 followers on Twitter and some of the followers quite often re-tweet the tweets I post. I also use these two forms of social media to support our local musicians and their gigs wherever and whenever I get the opportunity. I was speaking to Richard Davies at the Globe last night and he asked if I could mention their gigs which I am pleased to do.
When I became Chairman last year one of my objectives was to increase our membership, but of course those plans are on hold as well. Unfortunately, two of our members have passed away this past year so increasing membership is a priority of mine, if we are to keep GJAS now and for the future.
As already mentioned, our last meeting at Gateshead Library was early last year so just after Christmas I suggested we run an online meeting which started in January this year and this has been a weekly event which we hold on a Thursday where members and guests join from 1:15pm for a 1:30 start. Not all members have been able to attend as some find technology a bit of a challenge, but those who do join in do enjoy it.
We have some chat and play music of our choice. At the moment we use TEAMS which has replaced Skype. It is free and very easy to use. I set up a meeting and save it to the electronic calendar and then I email members with the link for the meeting. As members/guests request to join the meeting I admit them and we are then ready to start. Alan Barnes very kindly agreed to join one of our meetings a few weeks ago (see one of my attachments). I was very grateful to Alan as he stayed with us for 90 minutes sharing some interesting stories as well as playing some music.
Anyone interested in joining our online meetings please let me know - you will be more than welcome. Anyone who would like further details should email me at the GJAS email which is GJAS1981@outlook.com. Neil Todd
1 comment :
Thanks for that Neil. It was good to meet up with you last night at a great gig and to know that, despite the struggles with adversity that we are all facing the society is going from strength to strength.
Back in the 1990s, my dear friend - the late Margaret Barnes - asked me to do a talk about Art Pepper which I duly did and, despite upsetting the lectern and scattering my notes to the four corners of the room (Caedmon Hall was rather close to what was then, the Springfield Hotel)it, nevertheless seemed to go down well although when I played Art's version of Alfie with the Buddy Rich Band one listener did remark that it was almost as good as Cilla Black's!
I still have a typewritten transcript - somehere...
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