Pittsburgh Group adds Zoom
September 15, 2021 – Tonight, the Peripheral Neuropathy Support Network (PNSN) helped the North Huntington (Pittsburgh) group hold its first Zoom videoconference meeting, but the circumstances were quite unusual.
The North Huntington group is about 10 years old, and had always met in person. Planners, lead by Bill Wilshire, had planned to include a Zoom audience tonight, but the Zoom technician had to go out of town. Rather than cancelling the meeting, which included a speaker, David Bush, one of the founders of the Network and also a member of the Pittsburgh group, offered the Network’s Zoom services to keep the meeting alive.
However, when it turned out that the “live” meeting location had no working Wi-Fi, the Zoom meeting was cut off from attending the main meeting.
Fortunately, Pat Gualtieri, executive director of the Network, was present on the call and immediately went to work. While Bill held the scheduled “live” meeting at the church location, Pat chaired the Zoom portion without missing a beat.
It was a good save and demonstrated the flexibility of Zoom for local groups to offer sufferers of Peripheral Neuropathy. Even the North Huntington group has such a wide geographic footprint, that in-person meetings are difficult for many of the mobility-impaired members, especially with tonight’s storms throughout the Pittsburgh area.
Having a Zoom component to local meetings means that many more people can be included, either from the immediate area, or from anywhere in the world. Users then have the option of in-person attendance, or logging in from home, a boon for Pittsburgh’s winter weather.
The PNSN is an outgrowth of the Peripheral Neuropathy Support Group of the DC area. Its mission is to help found and support Peripheral Neuropathy groups around the country.
###