Two months down the line I’m now in a position to restart my councillor blog posts. Whilst meetings are not taking place in actual committee rooms they have recommenced through the wonders of technology, MS Teams to be specific. And since the pandemic set in I have also been required to regularly check WhatsApp – very useful in disseminating information quickly regarding council actions - and relaunched my personal Facebook page as a social outlet to help occupy friends and family during lockdown. All in all a pretty steep learning curve!
So what meetings have I attended on line, and what’s it like? Well so far I have ‘been to’ Licensing, Audit, coronavirus briefings, ward team meetings, and one full Council albeit as short as possible within legal confines. And re the latter, if anyone has used MS Teams themselves, or any of the similar software like Zoom and Houseparty, you will know that you simply sit in front of your computer, smart phone, pad, or whatever, and whilst talking does go on, stare at a screen for however long the meeting takes. The fiddliest aspect is remembering to turn your speaker off when you’re not talking and on when you need to – rather frustrating to start what you believe is a worthy speech only to realise no-one can hear you!
Les
