Covid-19 has sure put a stop to in-person meetings and presentations, but that’s no reason why chapter meetings and presentations can’t still reach out and be available to IAFI members. In fact, several IAFI chapters have been able to increase their outreach and attendance through the use of online ‘virtual’ meetings and presentations. And as an added bonus, the presentations can be easily recorded and made available online to those who weren’t able to attend the live online event.
The Lower Columbia chapter has led the way with 4 monthly meeting presentations that have been recorded and later made available on their local GigaFlood website. These include Antarctic Glaciers by Dr. Scott Burns, The Lake Missoula Floods in NW Oregon and SW Washington by Rick Thompson, Global MegaFlood Science by Dr. Victor Baker, and 10 Ways the Lake Missoula Floods Still Affect Us Today by Rick Thompson.
Of course Nick Zentner of the Ellensburg Chapter has long been producing and posting videos of his public lectures and his 2-Minute Geology and Nick on the Rocks series, as well as a large library of Covid-era explorations of local geology. The Cheney-Palouse Chapter and the Lake Lewis Chapter have also held their own online virtual meetings and presentations including a recent presentation of Ice Age Floodscapes of the Pacific NW by Bruce Bjornstad for the Lake Lewis Chapter. We hope that other chapters can soon follow suit and that recordings of these and other future events can be made available to our larger IAFI membership.