Next West Midlands meeting

[Anne Klepacz]

The next West Mids meeting is on Saturday 6th June at 11am in the Outpatients Dept of the Birmingham and Midland Eye Centre (Dudley Road, Birmingham).
All welcome to a talk and open discussion on Access to Low Vision Services. The speaker is Mary Bairstow, Optometrist and Development Advisor for Vision 2020 UK.

[Anne Klepacz]

Just a reminder to anyone in or near Birmingham - do go along and meet others with KC. Plus an excellent talk and a chance to try out various low vision aids.

[CrippsCorner]

Would anyone be interested in broadcasting this meeting via Periscope? It could be really handy for members that cannot make it, or are simply too far away. If you're not aware of Periscope, this is what it is...

https://www.periscope.tv/about

[John Thatcher]

Thanks for the broadcast suggestion but my experience of these systems is that the quality can be very variable and they are often a distraction to the speakers. The biggest problem at Birmingham is that we have to meet in an open area in Out Patients and there is a low level of background noise which I think would be very irritating on a broadcast. There is also the important point that not everyone with KC would necessarily want their faces going out into the aether because some people do not inform friends, family or employers about their condition - a low risk admittedly but still a risk.

The meeting on 6th June was very interactive and would have been very difficult to share anyway. I am doing a short write up which will appear in the next newsletter but would be happy to respond to any questions about this meeting if anyone wants to post them here (please note that there is still a problem with the westmids email address which is not forwarding so do not use that yet).

I should add that I am the new organiser for the West Midlands Group, having moved to Shrewsbury a few months ago from Bedfordshire and from where I was involved with the committee at Moorfields for several years. I've had KC for over 45 years and have a 35 year old full penetrating graft on one eye.

[CrippsCorner]

Thanks for the explanation and your reasons are completely justifiable. Look forward to the next newsletter