October 2020 Bonsai Newsletter
Greetings to my fellow bonsai enthusiasts. This ongoing Covid-19 pandemic is certainly putting a cloud over future Conejo Valley Bonsai Society activities and restricting our socializing.
The biggest blow to our club’s plans is that the City of Westlake Village has confirmed that its Community Rooms will remain closed through the balance of 2020. The immediate impact is that our annual Holiday Potluck, Raffle, and Auction cannot be held.
“The Los Angeles County Public Health Orders do not allow any gatherings, events, or parties with non-household members, especially in con-fined or indoor spaces, where it is difficult to maintain a six feet distance from others,” Taylor Pineda, the city’s Community Services Coordinator, said in a letter.
The Community Rooms will remain closed until official health orders have deemed it safe to reopen. The City of Westlake Village’s Community Center is in Los Angeles County, so they must follow the LA guidelines. They will let us know as soon as they plan to reopen.
This raises the question of CVBS activities for 2021. We plan to maintain our monthly newsletter, but what else can we do? As club members, what additional activities would you like the club to embark on?
- Should we try to tentatively schedule demonstrations by professionals—and then cancel them or attempt to do them virtually (as some other clubs are doing) if our meeting venue remains closed?
- Would you like to see virtual demonstrations by our experienced members?
- How about virtual workshops of small groups of club members?
Of course, any of these “virtual” options require technology such as Skype, YouTube, Apple’s FaceTime, or Zoom. FaceTime only works between Apple devices, so that limits its usefulness, but Zoom, Skype, and YouTube work on any plat-form. The easiest of this may be the relative newcomer, Zoom.
Does anyone have a Zoom account and know how to host a Zoom demonstration, club meeting, or small Zoom gathering?
To close out 2020, we will have the election of officers: president, vice president, treasurer, and secretary. This month we will establish a nominations committee; the vote will be in November. Once elected, the officers will appoint the eight standing committee chairs: advisor, membership, newsletter, programs, publicity, refreshments, librarian, and field trips and activities. We need volunteers to fill all these positions.
Please contact me to let us know what position you can help with.
Our October Bonsai Exhibition
Even though the Resource Center at the Gardens of the World in Thousand Oaks is closed to an in-person exhibition this fall, we are holding a Virtual Exhibition in this newsletter (see pages 7 – 16). Many thanks to our fellow members who have taken pictures of their show trees and sent them to our newsletter editor, David Whiteside, for this “event.”
I hope you and your families are all doing well. I know some of you are staying close to home, others are working, and all seem to have a very limited social life with friends or bonsai activities.
Stay safe and keep in touch.
