Cohousing-L Mailing List: Zoom vs Hybrid vs In Person Meetings

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> Wondering about the reasons not to have all in person meetings? Are you 
> planning to return to in person meetings? What is the emotional impact on the 
> community of having people attend remotely?

We are still in this conversation. No final decision on technology or how to.

But what came out of the last discussion was that many people now prefer Zoom 
meetings because:

1. We have worked out many of the logistics such as raising hands using the 
zoom controls, muting speakers, etc., that were awkward at first.

2. People like having the chat feature to ask questions and have side 
conversations without interrupting the meeting. We have a second facilitator 
who watches the chat and alerts the main facilitator if a question needs 
attention, answers technical questions, etc.

3. Significantly more people attend meetings and stay for the whole meeting, 
whether they are sitting at their computers or tuned in while doing something 
else. Both members of a two adult household are more likely to attend. People 
can attend from anywhere. They attend on phones as well as computers.

4. Everyone can hear. Our in person meetings take place over a seating area 
that makes it difficult to hear in all sections of the room. After meeting on 
Zoom, more people spoke up and said they had not been able to hear in person 
and just never complained. Even with a microphone, the question is whether 
people will bother to use it. Will the use of microphones, etc., be as 
technologically distracting as using Zoom? No one’s hearing is getting better, 
it’s all growing toward less able to hear.

5. We do have a  projector but showing documents with screen sharing seems to 
be easier.

6. We are trying to see if having a potluck immediately after the meeting 
online will fill the desire to get together in person. One advantage is that 
when we had potlucks after meetings in person, everyone went home, for whatever 
reason, before coming to the potluck. So there was an odd break and not 
everyone came back. Will more come when it is clearly the start of a new social 
event?

Everyone is vaccinated but with breakthrough infections people have different 
levels of comfort. We have several residents that we know are immune 
compromised. (I’m not sure that we always know when another person may be 
immune compromised.)

We couldn’t have 30+ people in the CH distanced. And distanced we couldn’t hear 
each other without a mic.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org