Fwd: Cohousing-L Digest, Vol 219, Issue 22 re hybrid meetings
From: lienjud (lienjudaol.com)
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2022 20:45:24 -0700 (PDT)



Message: 4
Date: Sun, 17 Apr 2022 15:51:50 -0400
From: Sharon Villines <sharon [at] sharonvillines.com>
To: Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Subject: [C-L]_ Zoom vs Hybrid vs In Person Meetings
Message-ID: <75378424-32CF-4AD9-9C2C-91E300105AE6 [at] sharonvillines.com>
Content-Type: text/plain;    charset=utf-8

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

Sharon:great to hear from Takoma Village! Zoom has been a great tool when we 
had no other choice and it has made us more aware of issues like being able to 
hear. personally, i hope that we can learn from this and return to meeting IRL, 
not all of us on our devices in our own spaces. seems contrary to what we want 
out of cohousing, no?I see all these articles on how cohousing can help with 
loneliness and yet, when we hide in our homes, there is little to no 
connection.  while we have learned how to use zoom well, the energy is 
different when we are in the same space and you can feel and work with the 
energy in the room. Especially when topics have an emotional impact and/or 
difficult decisions have to be made,  I feel for the facilitators trying to 
keep track of all screens and even more challenging with hybrid meetings. I 
don't enjoy looking at a screen instead of having face to face interactions. 
So, let's work on the issues identified. 
Judith, Cascadia Commons




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