With some states and territories coming out of COVID-19 hibernation/lock down, our WA branch was the first group to restart. Their recent branch monthly was held at the Belgian Beer Cafe in the city, it was attended by it was attended by 5 people including many of the regulars. With an easy going atmosphere the conversations flowed with topics revolving around open-source smart phone OSes and other IT topics.

Alastair Irvine, the long-standing WA branch organiser is hoping to run a quiz night before the end of the year to re-energise the WA membership. He's looking for sponsorship from a local IT businesses including giveaways for all attendees and two door prizes, the more desirable of which will be given to a randomly selected financial member in attendance.

Hot on the heels of the August WA branch catch up, ITPA ran it's first virtual national catch up. The catch started off slow; within short notice we had a small crowd discussing multiple topics, ranging from how COVID-19 affected each of us, to our workplace environments, to what is happening with ITPA in the near future. There was some questioning of my sanity as a topic starter, I was live streaming my attempt at getting Windows 2000 to install successfully and the reasons behind it. Which has given an idea on another opinion piece to write.

If you would like to know more about the WA catchups, contact Alastair alastair.irvine@computer.org . If you would like to attend the national catchups, posts will be made on the discussion board announcing the next meet up and starting topic.