While many coin clubs are cancelling all of their club meetings for the foreseeable future, at least one Florida coin club is thinking outside the box and carrying on — virtually, that is. Citrus County Coin Club in northern central Florida, about 90 minutes north of Tampa, is about to host its first virtual coin club meeting. It may be the very first local coin club to host a regular meeting on a totally online platform. “Our intent is to host our regular April 21 meeting online,” says Citrus County Coin Club President Bob Bandino.
Bandino says he and Citrus Country Coin Club Webmaster Arnie Fugate had been working on adopting the technology necessary to bring a meeting online. On Tuesday, April 7, he and the club’s board tested the technology using Google Hangouts as a platform to see if it would work. “It went very well,” Bandino reports. He says anybody with a Google Gmail account should be able to attend the April 21 meeting by visiting the club’s website and clicking “Virtual Meeting” at 7 PM Eastern Time. He says the goal is to make this upcoming virtual coin club meeting similar to a regular coin club meeting, just online. “We’re even planning on having a virtual presentation on Eisenhower dollars.”
If this model works, expect to see more virtual coin club meetings. “I can see us using this technology even after the COVID-19 pandemic is over to help give more people a venue for joining our meetings and being active members even if they can’t attend meetings in-person,” remarks Bandino. “I can think of several people who want to come to our meetings but can’t physically make it here.” He believes virtual meetings may also serve as a way of attracting new members who wish to join the club but don’t necessarily want to attend a meeting at a physical location. Bandino adds that he and the club’s board are also contemplating ways to eventually bring auctions online and make them part of the virtual coin club experience.
For more information, please contact Bob Bandino at bobbcccc@gmail.com
