As we all adapt to this new quarantine lifestyle, now more than ever we need to look at alternate ways to maintain relationship with our WWME Community family.
Virtual meetings
There are several ways to create virtual meetings, however, they all have pros and cons, based upon how many attendees and how long the meeting will be. There are some free versions of platforms out there but they have time limitations. A good work around these limitations is:
- Part I: Introductions and presentation
- Dialogue “offline,” suggest couples log off, dialogue, and couple share, grab a drink or snack, and come back for Part II of meeting
- Part II: Sharing and prayers
Avoid Unwanted Intruders to Your Virtual Meetings
Improve Your Wi-Fi Connection at Home
Alternative ways of building relationship in small groups
While many of us have participated in video conferences at work, few of us have those same capabilities at home. So we would like to offer some low-tech/no-tech options to keep your sharing group couples and priests connected with one another.
Sharing group meeting sharing with google docs
A presenting couple can create a document on the Google docs drive titled with the Sharing Group’s name and date (eg, “LakesideLovers032020”) and share their presentation with the group members. This program is free. If you don’t have an account, go to www.doc.google.com and sign up for a personal drive with your Gmail email address. After reading the presentation, each couple can complete their 10/10 dialogue and share their feelings on the same document. This can be done in real time or during the course of a week.
“Virtual hug” sharing group email chain
During a week, each Sharing Group couple/priest sends a daily note to another couple/priest in the Sharing Group. This note could be a prayer, funny story, inspirational quote, joke, or a personal wish. To start, the leader emails all members a list of names and email addresses. Then, on Monday , couple #1 sends an email to couple #2. Then on Tuesday couple #1 sends an email to couple #3, and so on. This continues until each couple sends an email to every couple on the Sharing Group list.
Send an e-card to members of your sharing group, parish and women priests, or any religious in your lives
There are several websites that enable the sending of “free” e-cards. Consider sending a funny card to give everyone something to laugh about. Here’s only a few:
america needs fatima greeting cards
Consider re-instituting “one ringers”
Years ago when couples dialogued, they then called another encountered couple to remind them to dialogue by letting the phone ring once and hanging up. Today’s version of the “one ringer” could be a text message sent to the other couple. Pair sharing group couples/priests with a different Sacrament each week.
Create a groupme.com sharing group list
Members can be loaded on a computer or through a phone app. Once set up, everyone is live to text the group. Photos and memes can also be loaded. Consider asking everyone to post their sharing words each time they dialogue. Use this groupme group for prayer requests, sharing tips, or referring folks to updates on this website.
Prayer couples – call couples you have prayed for over the years
It’s as simple as starting the conversation with “we were thinking about you, wondering how you are doing.” Remember a lot of couples moved on from their Experience and set the tools aside. Simply reconnecting is a start, but it also will give them a chance to ask you questions about the tools they learned. Use this website as a reference for them. Just love them.