By Lynn Lewis, Rotary Club of Mississauga and Secretary of the International Golfing Fellowship of Rotarians
At IGFR-International, the International Golfing Fellowship of Rotarians, the impact of the global Covid-19 pandemic was evident since the outbreak in early 2020. Tournaments had to be moved, cancelled, and, therefore, fellowship became difficult. What was a thriving time spent together on the golf course could not happen any longer. But the Board of IGFR International moved quickly to resolve the situation and to make sure fellowship could continue – even without the group tournaments.
As soon as the pandemic started, our Board of Directors convened monthly online to discuss planned and future tournaments, and the impact of Covid-19. For the first time in our 40+ year history, we convened at our Annual General Meeting online, to allow our members from all over the globe to take part. Normally this would have been an in-person event at our annual world championship. Needless to say our fellows were hungry to meet again, and after the official business was concluded, many stayed on and chatted away. We also just successfully held our second AGM in the same format.
Because our fellowship unites Golfers from all continents, we improved our communications efforts with our members in this new hybrid world. We issue more frequent and more newsworthy newsletters. We improved our website functionality and polled our members on their communications preferences to get our approach right.
Most recently, we launched the IGFR International Facebook group, where – within the first 5 weeks- over 160 friends have convened to share pictures and stories around their game of golf.
At the same time, we continue our plan to meet in Marrakesh, Morocco, in late October for our world championship, if the travel and health situation permits.
Covid-19 may have prevented us from holding our world championship tournaments in person for a while, but it certainly did not hold us back staying close to our members and friends. It is now that we feel we are better connected than before.
To learn more about the International Golfing Fellowship of Rotarians, visit https://igfr-international.com/
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