After an absence of 26 months, the Arlington County Civic Federation was back in person May 10 for a monthly meeting.
“It’s been two years – hard to believe,” the organization’s president, Allan Gajadhar, said as delegates, alternates and the merely curious gathered at the Hazel Auditorium at Virginia Hospital Center for the first time since the late winter of 2020.
“I’m really thrilled,” Gajadhar said of the return to in-person confabs.
The Civic Federation, which comprises about 60 member organizations and has been a key local organization for more than a decade, has been conducting its business online in the intervening two years. The May meeting was in a hybrid format, with attendance and voting both in person and online.
One who was decidedly glad to be back face-to-face (or mask-to-mask) was longtime delegate Michael Beer.
“I hope a lot more people will come [back in person],” Beer said. “It’s been great.”
The Civic Federation, which long has met at the hospital, attempted to re-start monthly meetings there last December, but was derailed by the emergence of a new COVID variant.