The Cactus Trip Diaries

Friday 24 July 2020

Just to confuse you, I thought that I’d announce Sunday’s meeting a few days early. Rikus is back from holiday and would like to entertain us with his trip to Tanzania that ran into a few technical problem a few weeks ago.

Rikus van Veldhuisen presents Magical Tanzania
A presentation about his latest trip to Tanzania last January with a lot of Euphorbias.

Start Time: Jul 26, 2020 07:30 PM London

To join this Zoom Meeting, click on the link below close to the start time.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84070180368?pwd=d3hTYXR4THI4cEZwZUdBL3dmNU5Xdz09

Meeting ID: 840 7018 0368
Passcode: Rikus

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Last minute update

Rikus and I had a success test meeting this morning: his wife had bought a new tablet enabled him to play his presentation so that I could hear and see it: Success!!

But Rikus has another engagement tonight, so will go straight to the SWiS2020 event – now not too far away.

I have been working on another Chile presentation, so unless anyone has anything else to entertain us with, I can show you that.

Future meetings include:

Speaker and title to be announced
Date and time: Sunday 2 August 2020 at 7:30 pm (BST)
Meeting ID: to be announced
Password: Who

Dr. Jonathan Clark: ‘Cacti and succulents in 3D’
Date and time: Sunday 9 August 2020 at 7:30 pm (BST)
Meeting ID: to be announced
Password: DoctorY

Eunice Thompson: ‘Looking for Cacti and Succulents by drone’
Date and time: Sunday 16 August 2020 at 7:30 pm (BST)
Meeting ID: to be announced
Password: Bellflower

Tephrocactus Study Group – Speaker and subject to be announced
Date and time: Sunday 23 August 2020 at 7:30 pm (BST)
Meeting ID: to be announced
Password: WhoTCSG

Alain Buffel:

Date and time: Sunday 30 August 2020 at 7:30 pm (BST)
Meeting ID: to be announced
Password: BuffelRoo

Sunday 19 July 2020

Yesterday I had been invited to give a BCSS Branch presentation Zoom presentation to the Reading & Basingstoke Branch entitled Brazil 2018.

We experienced a few technical hitches which meant that the planned 45 minute presentation – a travelogue through the Brazilian States of Minas Gerais and Bahia – took closer to two hours. As a result we ran out of time to run Part 2 – Succulent Conservation Issues – including Cacti. Those that lasted the course suggested that we’d run Part 2 tonight.

Brazil 2018 pt 2 – Succulent Conservation Issues (incl. Cacti)
Time: Sunday, Jul 19, 2020 07:30 PM London BST

Click on the link to join the Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82248934019?pwd=YThtdmRJdXVpK3diMTJXRVpGVERUdz09

Meeting ID: 822 4893 4019
Password: conserve

We hope to have some friends from Brazil with us: Marylan and Caio Coelho, Marlon Machado and Gerardus Oltshoorn will comment on he current position on Arrojadoa marylaniae , believed to be the first cactus species to have become extinct since the IUCN started to monitor the status of living organisms in 1964, on the Melocactus conoideus project to which the BCSS Conservation made a financial contribution and to the threat posed by quarrying posed for populations of Coleocephalocereus taxa. To give the presentation a more optimistic note, Marlon took us to some populations of yet undescribed species of cacti.

I will be recording the meeting for learning and training purposes.

Hope to see you there!

Saturday 11 July 2020 Tomorrows Zoom Meeting

Time flies! I seem to have spent most of the past week either at Zoom meetings or preparing for them.

Last week’s (nearly) speaker, Rikus van Veldhuisen is away on holiday and will redo his test presentation next week.

Inviation

Topic: SWiS2020 preparation Zoom Meeting
Time: Sunday July 12, 2020 07:30 PM London

Please Join the Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89786520774?pwd=MVFpcXJJSzAydW45dHpFenZmbzdyZz09

Meeting ID: 897 8652 0774
Password: 728575

I will report on some interesting developments in the past week. Any reports from others are very welcome, Anyone who wants to test something out for their SWiS2020 presentation are very welcome.

I will have my Cuba presentation ready to provide some entertainment and will have my weekly bottle of wine ready to enjoy a relaxed chat with friends.

Friday 3rd July – Another Zoom meeting announcement

Happy Birthday to Angie Money and to Mark Fryer in California!

Every Sunday, at 19:30 BST, I host an informal zoom meeting by a number of speakers whom I would like to be speakers during the Second Weekend in September 2020.

This Sunday I would like to invite you to Rikus van Veldhuisen’s Informal Zoom meeting entitled :

Magical Tanzania
– a presentation about my latest trip to Tanzania in last January with a lot of Euphorbias’

Time: Sunday July 5, 2020 07:30 PM London
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87683353817?pwd=SElUZ01IVEdQdlpmOC9xcEZzUFA3dz09

Meeting ID: 876 8335 3817
Password: RikusvV

I have a Zoom Pro Account that allows for up to 100 attendants. Like any cactus meeting, when the hall is full, there is no more space. Please email me if this should happen to you. If this should happen a lot, than I can look into alternative solutions.

Zoom has a ‘record’ function that can be operated by the host, for host and speaker to both learn from these informal meetings and are then deleted. Many speakers do not give permission to record the talks, so if you have unfortunately missed the meeting, do not embarrass me to have to refuse your request. If you know that you will have to miss a future meeting by all means contact the speaker and ask them to grant me permission to record their talk. After the meeting, I can send the copy to the speaker and let them distribute them as they want. Files are quite large so you may need to use free software such as WeTransfer to send the files. Without explicit written instructions from the speaker, I will ignore requests.

In these days of the Covid pandemic, I am happy to learn and gain experience of Zoom meetings by paying for the Zoom licence out of my own pocket. I would encourage everyone who attends these or other hobby Zoom meetings / presentations either by the BCSS or any other hobby organisations to share lessons learned.