[NLRS] Aurora 2021

[Richard Clem]

I've only been to one or two Auroras (or is it Aurorae?) but my thoughts are:

A Zoom meeting would be pretty low on my priorities.  I guess if I was free
that day, I would check in, but the luster of Zoom meetings has kind of worn
off.

I would be very interested in attending any kind of outdoor gathering.  As
long as people observe minimal precautions, outdoor meetings appear to be very
safe.  I've been to a few outdoor meetings, and it is very good to have a
chance to actually see people in person, even if it's from 6 feet away. 
Usually, people bring along their own lawn chair and/or blanket, which would
work for a business meeting or seminars.  There's always a chance that the
weather will be bad, but even that needn't be a big problem.  People can bring
umbrellas, and the speaker can stand under a canopy.

I'm not quite ready for indoor meetings, although that might be a possibility
soon.  I'll be having my second vaccine dose in about a week, and after that,
I will probably be more comfortable indoors, after a year of almost entirely
avoiding buildings other than my own home.  But until the vaccine is available
to all or most, I don't think that's a good idea.

The good news is that I suspect the vaccine situation will be much better in a
couple of months.

73,
Rick W0IS



Message: 1
Date: Tue, 23 Feb 2021 17:35:18 +0000 (UTC)
From: Jon Platt <w0zq at aol.com>
To: "nlrs at mailman.qth.net" <nlrs at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: [NLRS] Aurora 2021
Message-ID: <1949772384.1294910.1614101718709 at mail.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

Hello NLRS land...Our Upper Midwest Aurora Conference has historically been
held
in late April or early May.? With this timing in mind, given the ongoing
COVID
pandemic and the uncertainty around the exact timing for the vaccine roll
out,
its effectiveness on different emerging strains, the uncertainty around the
ability of transfer from vaccinated infected asymptomatic individuals to
others,
and balanced all this against risk classification for our groups age, Aurora
2021 will not be held in its usual time spot.??...Looking forward there is
reason for optimism.? The J&J vaccine may be approved for EUA soon which will
add additional vaccine?manufacturing capacity.??Also, Pfizer is looking at
the
possibility of a third shot, or a booster shot, should the effectiveness of
the
current?vaccine?against the emerging strains prove to be less
effective.??Although not certain, there is reason to believe?that we could
have
most op's vaccinated by late Summer or early Fall.? There is re
ason for optimism....With this as a background, what about Aurora for 2021.?
As
has been discussed before we could do an online, Zoom-ish, conference.? My
own
thought is that this type of online conference lacks the personal
interactions
that is the true basis of our VHF+ based conferences, plus they do take some
work and some resources to support.??Also discussed has been the possibility
of
doing just the outside part of our usual conference format, just the antenna
range and the car-trunk-to-car-trunk swap.? Such a conference would allow for
an
outside social gathering and?we could maybe do a short stand up club meeting
as
well.? If we were to do this, it would be better to slide the conference date
deeper into the Summer time than April as many of our April based conferences
have been pretty darn cold and/or snowed.? Then, what to do if it rains??
?...In
summary, while we have not given up on Aurora 2021 it will not be held in the
April/May time frame.? I do not favor a Z
oom like conference albeit I could be convinced otherwise.? However, and in
lieu of a Zoom conference, as we continue to monitor the uncertainties as
outline above and as our optimism unfolds, we could look to have a full
conference in later Summer or early Fall.? ?...As always, comments
welcomed....73, JonW0ZQ.