FABAC's First Virtual Breakfast

Earlier this week, I received communication that Dan and Phil had the discussed the idea of trying an online breakfast for those who have missed getting out for the real ones. Coincidentally, I had been thinking the same thing and had researched a few of the video conferencing software programs out there. My family all have Apple products so we use FaceTime, which unfortunately is not cross-platform. So I checked out Duo, Zoom, Skype, and a relatively new one from Microsoft called 'Meet Now'. It actually is an offshoot of Skype, but has the advantage of not requiring the users to download anything, nor subscribe to anything or go through any complex sign-in.

Dan, Phil and I gave it a trial run and were satisfied that it would be worth trying. We decided to start with a limited number of FABACians that had frequented the real breakfasts that Phil arranges.

This morning, invitations to join the session were sent to sixteen members. I believe we had ten or twelve who were able to join. It wasn't like having Marley bring our favourite breakfasts to our tables, but we seemed to maintain the same joviality that characterizes those breakfasts. The experience was positive enough to decide to make it a regular happening.

Dan made the good suggestion that perhaps we should have another 'meeting' with those who were not in this one, but would like to have a chance to learn by doing. Not everything is intuitive about the process, but we all managed to stumble through it.

I am going to send out an invitation tomorrow morning (Friday) to those who renewed their membership so quickly this afternoon. Join if you wish. Details on how to join will be in the email. The event will open at 9:00 and you can join any time after that until we quit an hour or so after that. And if you miss out on that, rest assured that you will have opportunities in the future.

Cheers,
David

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Thanks to someone who unwittingly took dozens of screenshots, we actually have some evidence to show you. Some of his screenshots were of the floor while he tried to figure out why the iPad was using the rear camera instead of the front one. He got it! And we have these great shots as a result:

Click on anyone for a larger view.