Virtual Meetings and Nette Runden

Nette Runden is a German expression for gatherings that often start with chance encounters and then develop into circles of friends who continue to meet more frequently because they simply enjoy being with each other. Virtual meetings are less than perfect substitutes for this but do have some special advantages from time to time.

Distant socializing took the form of virtual on-line meetings with almost any number of individuals who participated from their homes, when physical distancing was required to counter Covid-19 during the Spring of 2020. Some members of a worldwide group moved quickly beyond mere chit chat at such meetings and achieved fun-filled and interesting virtual gatherings with activities that were very similar to what the members of this group loved to do at their weekly local meetings throughout most of each year. Since the basic meeting format was the same worldwide it was easy to - for instance - join an evening meeting in Europe during the afternoon and morning hours of the United States. The common language at these meetings is German and this organization, Schlaraffia, exists since 1859.

Close to ten thousand men belong to this organization where friendship, art and humor are central topics and where local meetings are structured to create a supportive and enjoyable atmosphere that excludes serious discussions of such daily concerns as business, politics and religion. A good number of other groups have also socialized successfully using virtual meetings during the Covid-19 pandemic..

The business world has employed and perfected virtual conferencing for some time now. At this time, however, significant learning, practice and development efforts are needed to realize more of the potential of these virtual meetings in the social realm. With these reflections I hope to advance meaningful development of virtual meetings, which may not need to be totally abandoned when the more traditional circles of friends and nette Runden will return after physical distancing is no longer needed.

Since 2011, I use “http://netterunden.blogspot.com/ “

to document some aspects of events that are of special interst to me and others. While most of this is written in German, there is no good reason why some of it  should not be in English.