Cohousing-L Mailing List: Hybrid Zoom Meetings - Need Help

[Neil Planchon (neil]

Philip Dowds  - (rpdowds [at] comcast.net <mailto:rpdowds [at] comcast.net>) is 
the author of the message below. It was 
posted by Neil of the Cohousing-L management team <cohousing-l-owner [at] 
cohousing.org <http://cohousing.org/>> due to a format issue.

-=-

Our plenary experience with Zoom/Owl has been positive.  We always do plenaries 
hybrid, but at this time, most members have returned to the room, and only a 
few choose the screen.  Zoom/Owl can feel annoyingly cumbersome for small 
circles.

For Zoom/Owl to work optimally, you need:  An Owl, plus the downloaded Owl 
management app; the Zoom app; a laptop; a big screen; a 120v power supply; and 
misc cables and adapters to interlink everything together.  The first time 
round with Zoom/Owl, it takes a while to get everything configured properly.  
After that, it’s pretty routine, and rarely needs attention during a meeting.  
I recommend against trying to run Owl and host Zoom on the same laptop; you 
really need a separate mobile computer dedicated to the Owl and monitor.  Buy 
one?

Your best group dynamics facilitators may not be your most facile Zoom jockeys. 
 If you want to do the tricky Zoom stuff — captioning, recording, break-outs, 
screen sharing, whiteboards, mute all, whatever — it’s often better to have an 
"expert" Zoom jockey working with the facilitator.

Finally, do not presume that Zoom/Owl solves everything for everyone.  Some 
people hate Zoom, and some of us think that remote participation comes off 
lame.  Be careful: Jokes often don’t work with the postage stamp faces.  
Setting up and managing Zoom/Owl, even when fully mastered, can be a lot of 
bother.  Prioritizing for all in-person, and saving hybrid for special 
occasions, may be best for your group. Recall that real people in real rooms 
was the gold standard before 2020; video conferencing was a runner up normally 
reserved for insurmountable distances.

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Thanks,
Philip Dowds
Cornerstone Cohousing
Cambridge, MA