STRATEGIC ACTIVITIES AND INITIATIVES

The previous Spring issued in March detailed the strategic priorities which are currently being worked on:

• Track 1 – breaking the mould on which all Societies are based and by re-imagining what local Societies could look like in the 21st century. We are working with selected Societies to explore new ways of delivering locally empowered, more sustainable and community driven models. • Track 2 – with the aim of developing a new product or service by 2023 that will be capable of monetisation, raise awareness and attract new audiences. • Membership Recruitment – the Working Group’s resources were launched at a dedicated Town Hall meeting on 27 September attended by 60 people who also shared their own useful ideas.

ZOOM ACCESS SCHEME

Many of our Societies have now returned to in-person lectures in their usual venues and as a result have decided to discontinue their online Zoom lecture programmes. There are Societies that have decided to continue their programmes solely via Zoom or as a hybrid with some members viewing at home and others in person.

We have received feedback that many members, for various reasons, would like to continue to view lectures and other content at home via Zoom. In order to help Societies that are not offering online content to retain these members we are considering the use of a ‘Zoom access scheme’. Members would still belong to their local Society and pay their subscription but would have access to the online content of other Societies either for free or upon payment of the appropriate fee to the Society whose content they will be accessing.

When the scheme is open it will work as follows:

We will contact Society Members informing them of the scheme and those that are interested can sign up for the scheme using an online form.

The Arts Society will send a regular email with a link to a web page containing the details of the lectures of participating Societies that are being held via Zoom. To find out about each lecture and how to attend, Society Members can click on the name of the event for more information and details of how to book.

BENEFITS OF THE ZOOM ACCESS SCHEME

• Continued access to our lectures for those unable to attend in-person due to infirmity, ill-health or the continued need to take extra care due to Covid

• Societies continue to retain these members who may otherwise have resigned • Additional income for those Societies continuing to offer lectures via Zoom

A survey was sent to all Societies who currently hold a Zoom license. The responses were as follows:

Does your Society plan to continue using Zoom for online lectures? 100 responses

If yes, will you be running your online lectures as Hybrid lectures? 69 responses

Yes No Maybe

21% 25%

54%

No, online only Yes, we will be running hybrid lectures Both, hybrid and online-only events

71% 13%

15.9%

How do you make your lectures available to your Membership? 76 responses

Would you be open to making your Zoom lectures available to Members from other Societies? 84 responses

Live-stream

Record the lecture, then make it available for a fixed period Both, live-stream and recording

93.4%

34.5%

Yes, for free No

Yes, for a fee Maybe

40.5%

20.2%