Online (virtual) photography clubs?

I've been a member of a couple semi-local photography clubs for the last 20 years. And they mostly worked OK - get everybody in a room once a month to do club business then hear an "expert" do a presentation, and get together for a second in-person meeting to have the monthly salon where prints or slides, or later digital images, were evaluated by a non-member "judge". It was, and still is, in my opinion, a good learning tool to have someone outside the club give feedback on one's work.

Times have changed, and during Covid I believe quite a few clubs switched to virtual meetings, which I thought worked well (at least the one's I'm familiar with).

Now that we've moved past Covid (at least for the time being), are there "local" photography clubs that have gone virtual permanently, or are they all heavily wedded to the old way of getting everybody into a room for a meeting?

In my mind, and I'm NOT in charge of any club, nor do I want to be, it seems like a virtual club would have a lot of advantages (it was intended to be a list, but I can't find the tool here to make a fer-real list):
You could have presenters from ANYWHERE since they wouldn't have to be in the room to communicate.
You could have salon judges from anywhere since they wouldn't have to be in the room to provide feedback.
Could have members from anywhere – clubs could decide if they want members from a geographic region (within 100 miles of x), or anyone in the state of Y or anyone in the continental US or anyone in the world, or whatever way they'd choose.
All meetings (membership and salon) would be online – Zoom or equivalent, so no lost time traveling to/from meetings or costly commuting.
No more concern about risking people’s lives getting to meetings during the six months/year when the weather sucks in <pick state>.
All digital – Not having to deliver prints to a location would be great (see point above about <pick state> weather).
Many clubs (some I’m familiar with) have little, if any, in-person group activities or other significant in-person learning.
Not incurring the huge cost per year of a meeting room. I don’t know what costs are in YOUR area, but HERE, it’s apparently around $150/hr, or somewhere around $1800 per year for 8, 2 hour meetings. Which means you have to collect a LOT of dues to pay for a room. That funding could be used instead to pay for good, expert presentations and competent judges.
Geographically close members could get together the same as always to go photograph together.
Geographically distant members to convene at some location to photograph with local members (to me, this seems like a huge advantage - having a local person that knows the area).

I'm sure there are reasons for WANTING to have everybody in a room for meetings, but I can only think of a couple:
There are some people that LIKE prints and would miss them, and you have to deliver and retrieve them, so that would point to in-person meetings to me.
One reason I've been given for the old meeting style is that "if you can get everybody in a room it's easier to "twist people's arms" into taking on responsibilities for the club (facilities, activities, run for office on the club's board, etc)".
I figure there are probably OTHER reasons to want in-person meetings, but I don't know what they'd be...

So, back to my original question - are there any places in the U.S. where local clubs have gone virtual, and welcome members from elsewhere? I wouldn't care if the club was based in East Overshoe Iowa or North Foothill Montana. Maybe somebody in Montana would say "Hey, we're going to Yellowstone for a couple weeks on X, so if y'all want to come out and photograph with us...

Thoughts?

Virtual meetings to me are quite difficult. One reason for an “in-person” meeting that you missed is…… well…… actually meeting talking to another human rather than a blurry video of one. Add technical issues, people not being able to hear, bad light, some idiot not muting their line, etc and you get a real pig’s breakfast.

However, you raise and interesting point. By casting a wider net via a video meeting, would your local great get more members/potential speakers from further afield? Maybe. I could see myself joining a few “video” clubs that have local photographers with local knowledge of the area, etc. I in return could help them with my area as each might travel to the other. It’s possible.

I think 100% video meetings for a local club is ghastly. But maybe 1x per quarter is video (2 in-person)?

It would seem like a possibility, though to answer your question I've never run into any online "clubs" . Since I live in a photographic wasteland and there are no photography clubs to join, I started participating in online forums soon after I got my first serious camera 15 years ago. Small groups within forums became my photography club. So online meetings whether by zoom or just messaging back and forth would seem natural to me since I've never had the opportunity for in person meetings.

Thanks for the replies. My experience has pretty much been the opposite of DMCOs. I find it much easier to see images being critiqued on the monitor rather than some projected screen (poorly calibrated, low res projection), or some TV at the front of a big room. And I've found the judges audio to be far better than trying to hear them in a meeting room when they turn 180 degrees from the microphone to point at something on the same low res screen. Or when they're a mumbler that anyone with a hearing disability can't understand. Or the portable mic falls off or shuts off, or otherwise fails. Or any of the other bizarre stuff that's plagued presentations and salons in person for the last 20 years.

In my experience, the vast majority of webinars or zoom presentations have been far better, more professional, and more informational than the local stuff where availability was apparently a skill. And they can come from anywhere in the country or even outside the country...

I can see the in-person information transfer from person-to-person, but I almost never saw that happening at the in-person meetings. The presenter presented and before the meeting and at the break people prattled about non-technical, non-photography stuff.

Both clubs of which I'm still a current member are still doing Zoom meetings for membership, presentations and salons, though ONE of them is doing a "hybrid" membership meeting where they have a room with people in it as well as on Zoom. Its about 50/50 in person vs zoom. So now it's $1800 to have half the people that even go to the meeting, which is about half the membership, so figure about $120 per year for each in-person. I'd rather see $150 go to an expert to do a useful presentation online.

I could see an advantage to some technical training where you'd want people in person - say something on close up/macro photography with a bunch of stations where people can photograph things, staffed by knowledgeable members (now we're back to the availability is a skill problem). But how often is that kind of learning going to happen? Certainly not monthly.

I'm definitely enjoying NOT making the 60 mile round trip in the winter in Minnesota, but there are other club members who really want in-person meetings.

minniev, I can see the photographic wasteland problem!

It seems to me that a virtual meeting of a club is no better than participating here and/or watching Youtube videos. I spend enough time sitting and working in front of a computer screen and have no desire to sit there on my time off!

In a club I would rather meet and interact with real people in real space and I think a great deal is lost by not being able to do that. :)

David