I was out in some canyons down on the Mexican border for the last month. Just got back. WHAT have you done! Well we have a new reality. Let me first introduce myself, Dan Kidd, yes, for many of you, your worst nightmare come true. It’s been a rocky start with the transition, but I think we’re going to make it.

We finally had our first board meeting last week and I urged everyone to wash their hands after the meeting. It was on Zoom. I had never heard of Zoom before. Well, time to cowboy up for all of us. I know it’ll be kicking and screaming for many, myself included, but that’s were it’s going to be for the foreseeable future. As a first experiment, we tried Happy Hour successfully live on Zoom! Get up to speed, we’ve been thrown into the lion’s den! There are tutorials on the web. We can have some fun with this…Dress up? Backgrounds?...Things you’d never do in a public setting…Did I say that?  

Also, we decided the heck with cancelling the monthly meeting. We, as a club and as a bunch of people nearly crazy from isolation, might need a meeting more than ever. A last minute change took place with the presenter. Looks like it’s going to be me: “A hundred miles down the Lower Canyons of the Rio Grande!” How we added two more to the trip the night before departing right at the border. How we saved a cow from quicksand and certain death from coyotes. How to use a canoe after it’s been formed over a rock like a cap on a tooth, and… a tutorial for using an InReach to send an SOS, not to mention why the Sheriff took John away, and then there was the hospital thing at Pecos Memorial. Did I mention almost running out of water in the desert? But soaking in the hot springs was NICE!

We are here to answer your questions, but: Install the app, Zoom.us onto your computer/phone/tablet first. This will save time, though not necessary (If you don’t, you’ll be asked to install it when you want to jump on.) MOAC will send you a link or secret code..which you put in and voila!! Be sure to click “allow audio and video”!

Now, a couple other things.. Many of us are sitting around watching the world changing, and wondering and wishing we could do something to help. The Club is setting up a new forum (COVID 19) on the website where we can find this. I am asking those of you who know who needs help, whether it be where to find mask sewing supplies, who needs them, or who needs a ride to the grocery store or whatever to subscribe to that forum and post so that we might coordinate help. This is something WE CAN DO.

I’d also like to extend a very grateful collective thank you to the many people right here in the club and elsewhere who are working so hard and at personal risk to keep our country together and safe through these times. There are so many, from the frontline health workers, grocery clerks, truck drivers, sign makers, volunteers, to those self-quarantining.

One last thing for now regarding the 6’ social distancing requirement. Rumors that after Easter, it will be reduced to 5’ have not been verified with the CDC as of yet.

Thank you.
 
Dan Kidd, President