Others have already made valid points that I might be repeating.
Monthly in-person meetings suit some members better than others, but tend to exclude those who live in the suburbs or more distant locations, those who, for environmental reasons, eschew driving unless they really need to, and people whose lives are already busy enough that the extra 2 hrs spent commuting and/or setting up chairs is not an efficient use of their precious time.
Attendance at our in-person meetings was mostly quite sparse, but so are most of our social events. When we held in-person monthly meetings, social interaction time was limited – people were often rushing to clear up and get away.
The monthly meetings are better (and cheaper) if held via Zoom.
Members complained about Sunrise Hall acoustics and toilets. Previous to that location there were complaints about Vancouver Museum’s Kitsilano location, awkward storage and pay parking.
Finding affordable meeting space with storage has long been a challenge. The current storage is altogether unsatisfactory if we were to resume in-person meetings – library, A/V and possible tea/coffee service equipment would need trucking across town twice in a day – a major effort.
Hybrid meetings will create their own, additional problems (connectivity, A/V setup, awkwardness of socializing between a member at the meeting and a member on a remote connection without broadcasting to all).
A dedicated in-person Spring trip planning session and possibly a Fall/Winter review session with trip reports seems to offer the most opportunity for members to discuss plans and become acquainted. These events could be held at weekends. Adding social events onto workshops also seems valid, as was done in Jan 2023.
In my experience, most socializing has occurred on trips and training courses, not at monthly meetings.
Times have changed. We need social events, but we have to find ways to attract more attendees and to encourage dialogue.