Meeting Minutes
Torch Club of the Fox Valley
14 January 2021
Virtual
Notes taken by: Mary Flanagan
Attendees: Karen Bachhuber, Sue Bennett, Nancy Bodway, Brian Bushaw, Terri Daugherty, Dave Debbink, Marcia Debbink, Mary Flanagan, Paul Freiberg, Erik Hanson, Walt Hedges, Barbara Kelly, Bill Kelly, Richard Schoenbohm, Jan Mirenda Smith, Kris Stahl, Robert Swain, Scott Valitchka, Bert Wiegand, Donna Weis
Guest: Sofia Wilson
BUSINESS MEETING
Paul called the meeting to order at 6:13 PM.
Guest Sofia made us all jealous by letting us know that the temperatures in Las Vegas are in the 60's.
December's minutes were approved by consensus.
Treasurer's report from Barb:
Beginning balance in account: $3,003.07
Website renewal -215.76
Dues payments +60.00
Current balance: $2,847.31
Only one member still owes $10 dues.
The treasurer's report was accepted by consensus.
Bill said Paul has signed up to give a presentation in February and Kris will give one in March. There are still openings for presentations on April 8 and May 13.
Officer terms will be up in April. David and Jan will serve on the nominating committee. Current officers Paul, Bill, and Barb would be willing to continue in their current roles but could step aside if others want to take on a leadership role. Mary Flanagan does not want to continue as secretary. Richard is willing to be secretary but is not sure he can commit to more than one year. We will do nominations and vote in March. If you are interested in a position, let Jan or David know.
Members have been receiving acrimonious email exchanges from the IATC president, Dorthy Driskell, and Walter Van Eck, a former board member. Paul reached out to our regional director, Dwight Williams, to ask about them. Williams emailed back that Van Eck is acting inappropriately to try to get back on the board.
At Brian's request Paul gave a summary of the issue. In the 4th quarter of 2020 there was an article in Torch magazine that contained some controversial statements about the president. The allegation is that a nonvoting member of the management committee started a process to censor the article. There are a lot of allegations around that. Paul talked to Van Eck about this and his point was that the board is not following the rules and are having secret meetings. The board believes that Van Eck is being a pain in the neck which might be a fair interpretation based on the lengthy emails he is sending us.
Barb talked to Reed Taylor, one of our club's originators. He along with the board members are very much opposed to Van Eck's handling of the issues.
Richard asked Paul and Barb if the IATC leadership needs the support of clubs like ours or are they capable of dealing with this issue on their own. He suggested we stay out of it at this time and let the elected board members deal with the issue. Bill suggested we just monitor the issue and bring it up again if needed.
There were no announcements.
Business meeting adjourned at 6:40 PM.
Bill lead the group in a discussion of good things that have happened to us during the pandemic.
Bill unfortunately has not been able to lead his climbing brigade group but on the plus side that has freed up a lot of time for more reading. He also appreciates small moments where people are being especially nice to each other. In Woodmans he came to an intersection at the same time as three other shoppers with full carts. Everyone wanted to let everyone else go first. They would still be there if Bill hadn't eventually gone through.
Mary Flanagan appreciates how Zoom and people just having more time have allowed her to become closer to friends at a distance who she rarely saw before. Now she meets regularly with friends from high school, college, and some she just met once before while traveling.
Karen has been able to spend more time with her children and their families as part of their normal life. Rather than always planning trips they now discuss their daily lives more often. One son is the artistic director of the Cincinnati symphony orchestra. For their holiday concert 14,000 screens signed in which is more people than they would ever reach normally.
Barb usually only sees her sisters once a year and now they get together once a month on Zoom. Zoom has allowed people at a distance to join our Torch meetings too. Barb also appreciates getting to use her technical skills to facilitate Zoom meetings for several organizations. Barb and Bill were able to host more really great socially distanced deck gatherings this year too.
Sofia is happy that she can attend Torch meetings at a distance now. She also appreciates being able to get involved in outreach efforts to help people that are struggling.
Bob said it has been a terrible year, but it ended with two great words, “Trump lost!”
Nancy is noticing that everyone seems to be so kind and giving now. She has heard from many people that she hadn't heard from in a long time. She said that Peter is 90 today and she will wish him well from all of us. Nancy will be 90 in March.
Walt has been fortunate to have family able to quarantine and then stay with them for extended visits. Everybody, even technological Luddites, have learned to do Zoom which has enabled him to keep in touch with many old friends. Walt also appreciates never having to dress up or carry cash anymore.
Kris misses hugging, but it has pushed her to connect in other ways. She drops off treats to friends to give them virtual hugs. She is an honorary Grandma to two young boys. Since she couldn't have them over this Christmas she asked their mother to dress them warmly one night then brought over everything needed to decorate Christmas cookies outside. She also appreciates the creativity of having Zoom and parking lot church services.
One of Scott's business had been doing in-person training on employee selection. He was able to quickly and successfully turn the business around to train on virtual employee selection. This gave him a chance to work with people and organizations he likes and give them income in this difficult year. Scott also appreciated being able to create a retrospective photo slide show set to music performed by his stepson for family celebrations that had to be moved to Zoom.
Jan is also creating a virtual platform to celebrate her mother's 90th birthday. Her son has been producing a series of concerts called Sunday Songs of Covid on Instagram that her parents get to enjoy too now. Jan created a Facebook offering called Color for Covid postcards. These can be mailed to people who need more color and brightness in their life. Another theme she is exploring is called, “Storming.” She uses the landscape as a metaphor to the personal, political, Covid, and climate change storms we are all experiencing. Jan has found that people have been particularly responsive, generous, and creative on virtual platforms.
Erik appreciates the flexibility his family has had during Covid. With four school-age children's sports and other activities their time was very structured before. Since Covid he was able to take a first ever boys trip to the Colorado mountains with his sons and later joined by his wife and daughter while continuing to work remotely. After some dark days of mourning his previous life and activities in the beginning, Erik came to realize that he needed to focus more on taking care of himself and his health.
Bert and his wife have three children. Before Covid they saw how busy their children's families were. Since Covid they have seen how much more time they now have connect with each other and with them. Family and friends have reached out to them more. They regularly met with friends in parks. They wouldn't have had time to do this before because they traveled so frequently.
Paul appreciated the lack of traffic in Chicago during a recent trip. Visiting their new grandchild in Reno/Sparks became more of an adventure. Instead of flying, they drove the 2,000+ miles. Paul and his wife travel well together and enjoyed the lengthy travel time and the new sights they got to see.
Terri has been heartened to see so many more people walking and biking on the trails and hopes that trend will continue. She is happy to have had two adult children move home to quarantine with them while still holding their jobs. They had a nice outdoor 90th birthday party for her father. Not being huggers, Terri says Covid has finally made her family seem more normal.
David said that he and Marcia have organized and reorganized their basement and gotten things done around the house that they always intended to do but never got to when there were more fun things to do. He appreciates the businesses have stepped up to do the things that the government hasn't done to combat the spread of Covid like enforcing mask wearing. David said that all the things that have happened this year have put the disparity of humans on display. We see the disparity that we might not have noticed before. Hopefully we will work to address these issues now and in the future.
Marcia has struggled with all the time away from their children and grandchildren but thinks they have done them a favor by throwing away all the treasures that they would have no interest in. Marcia is very grateful that we and our families are all safe so far. We just have to continue to stay home despite the frustrations so that we can all stay well.
Richard compared time to a river that flows so quickly that you don't notice all the things that are going by. Then the river opens up and slows down changing how you perceive the world around you. The pandemic is like that. A lot of life was transactional before. We spent all our time just trying to get things done. One example Richard gave was his time with his father who had been ill and died in June while in the Touchstone Nursing Home. Before the pandemic he saw his father frequently but the visits were mostly transactional. They were getting tasks done, balancing his checkbook, cleaning up. They did not talk about life. When his father got locked down though that changed. Richard called him daily and asked him one or two questions about his life each time. He wrote down his father's answers and was able to share 26 pages of his reflections with him before he passed away. The same slowing down of the river of time has occurred with his regular phone calls and Zooms with his daughters.
Sue has enjoyed cooking at home more. They have started a journey of veganism along with getting out and exercising more. They camped at five or six state parks and look forward to checking out more this year. Sue has also been reflecting on historical events that people have lived through. We are not the first ones to go through difficult times. By sticking together and taking care of each other we will get through this.
Our next meeting will be on February 11.
Meeting adjourned at 7:42 PM.