WILLIAM HOLLAND SCHOOL OF LAPIDARY ART IS MAKING THE MOST OF IT
The August 2020 (On the Rocks) article by Bob Jones, “Rockhounding Community Persevering in Trying Times,” described some of the creative methods used to remain connected during these difficult times. I’d like to describe a few of the creative methods being used to remain connected with our large rockhounding and jewelry making community at the William Holland School of Lapidary Arts in Young Harris, Georgia.
The school opened in 1985 and has continued with weekly classes, held April thru October every year. Well, except, of course, for this infamous year, 2020, when the decision was made to cancel classes for the year.
Note that while a typical week at William Holland consists of classes, there are numerous other interesting and informative activities that go on as well. Monday is reserved for one or two demonstrations conducted by instructors to give students an idea of what goes on in other classes. Tuesday is the big auction. Thursday night is tailgating where both students and instructors may sell. Finally, on Friday, the Show-and-Tell event is where everyone displays their accomplishments of the week. Since that describes a “typical” school week, the staff wondered, “what could they do, under these trying, social-distancing conditions, to help all these disappointed students?”
The internet to the rescue! While the Friends of William Holland Facebook group had a large following, not everyone on, or wanted to be on, Facebook. Some investigation turned up an online organization called Betterworld (Betterworld.org) who would host online activities such as raffles and auctions. Finally, the two remaining big internet players in the solution are YouTube and PayPal. With this selection of internet tools, here is what a typical online week at William Holland looks like in 2020.
On Monday, one or two instructor demonstrations are conducted either via Facebook Live or prerecorded on YouTube. Tuesday, the famous and popular auction is now conducted via the Betterworld, conveniently handling all of the item display, bidding and payment overhead. Thursday, tailgating is conducted online where anyone can join in to post or bid on items for sale. Finally, on Friday, everyone is encouraged to post photos of recently completed or in-process work.
The whole online process/solution has been wildly popular with great participation. During this year of forced downtime, in addition to conducting all these online activities, the staff has been busy making campus improvements so that next year’s new and returning students will be in for many pleasant surprises.