Facilitator Peer support ZOOM Notes – Wednesday 22nd July 2020
Facilitated by George (Shropshire) and thanks George for the notes!
Attended by: Ruth (STAND), Michelle (DV E Dunbartonshire), Chris Norris (Kent), Paul S (Oldham)
- Returning to face-to-face meetings there may well be anxiety and of course practicalities. Paul said that the requirements for about 70 people meeting is ‘a non-starter’. They have manged to retain the space they usually used for their usual time slot indefinitely even if they are not using the space. However, people are frequently asking ‘when are we coming back?’. They have a walk on a Tuesday afternoon, but Paul is concerned about people who can’t join in.
- Lots of anxiety about coming out of lockdown.
- In meetings you really need to have closeness many times in order to communicate and this makes it pretty much impossible to comply with Covid distancing.
- It was suggested we should ask our group members what they want to do. For example, they might want to have outside meetings including in winter, as a group intends to do. You might organise meetings in a gazebo possibly in someone’s garden but that might still be too close for some. You could indeed meet in the open people’s gardens or you could if you have the capacity to individual face-to-face meetings over the gate so to speak, but that depends on the facilitator. You must have meetings at outdoor seated places like an open-air café in a park or a leisure walking place. Suggestion to phone ahead to cafes and reserve tables and check toilets. Got to remember however to check where the public toilets are open and indeed whether they are clean.
- Discussion around difference between groups who have a paid facilitator and groups that are self-run. George said that he is ‘frightened to get funding as I don’t want the hassle of organising what to do with it’. There is a difference where we don’t have a paid facilitator and don’t have carers. If we don’t get it together then there’s no one to pull it together’
- Ruth says ‘We aren’t always doing it we are empowering people to do it’
- Michelle says she is getting in the groove with Zoom!
- Discussion around the ten-minute rule for joining in Zoom meetings. The ten-minute rule was introduced as a way to reduce disruption in meetings which were time limited. Now there is a waiting room facility on Zoom it was suggested we should re-word the advice ‘the rule’, as some people said they find it off putting. Recognised if somebody is having difficulties connecting due to technology it can be stressful, frustrating and disappointing. Rachel agreed to reword what is sent out with emails.
The next facilitators meeting is on Wednesday 29th July between 12.30 and 1.30pm facilitated by Damian Murphy from Minds & Voices.
Contact if you would like to join in.
