Our committee “meets” over the phone. The group is widely scattered over a rural area, so having committee meetings face to face, when committee members are all busy people with family commitments, is often inconvenient. The prospect of having to drive long distances, especially in the winter, can put prospective committee members off volunteering. It’s not very environmentally-friendly to drive when you don’t have to, and petrol isn’t cheap.

For the past few years we’ve held most committee meetings by telephone conference call, arranged through Community Network, a charity based in London that provides tele-conferences for charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises.

Attempts to arrange video conferences have failed because we’re not all fluent in Internet-speak. A significant proportion of the group aren’t on the Internet anyway. Tele-conferences are easy for even the most technophobic; all you have to do is pick up the phone at a pre-arranged time, and it’s not expensive. As far as we know, we’re the only local Humanist & Secularist group to use this facility. We wonder why.

Calls can cost from as little as £8.80. Contact Community Network via their website, or phone 020 7923 5250.