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

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> Philip Dowds  - (rpdowds [at] comcast.net) is the author of the message 
> below: 

> 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.

Exactly. Our Zoom meetings are much better when we have two facilitators, one 
who does the traditional job of steering the discussion, and decision-making 
and a second who responds to all the technical connection issues, uses the chat 
to help people, and alerts the facilitator when there was a question in the 
chat that needs attention.

I don’t remember anyone mentioning the Chat — it has been very helpful. Not as 
intrusive as talking on the side but you can share information that might help 
the discussion but doesn’t need to be discussed. You can also send private 
messages and to everyone messages. 

One team of 3 that I worked with used text messages the same way. One person 
was presenting and the meeting members were making suggestions for moving 
forward that were very good and possible to accept immediately if we all 
agreed. We were texting to indicate agreement and some adjustments. It was very 
efficient and effective if challenging. Two conversations at the same time. But 
it meant we didn’t need to stop or discuss it later. Many people  use the chat 
the same way.

On the whole Zoom calls have become much smoother as everyone knows how to use 
it better. And we keep learning new things. I just learned about being able to 
turn off my own video in my view. So it takes time to learn the software — you 
can absorb it all at once.

> Recall that real people in real rooms was the gold standard before 2020; 
> video conferencing was a runner up normally reserved for insurmountable 
> distances.

But video conferencing had been growing for many years. Webinars as well as 
team meetings in corporations and large institutions. A sociologist would know 
when things began to change but It was 18 years ago that I saw an SAP 
conference room with their video set up. Each seat had a microphone and screen 
and there was a large screen on the wall. With internationally based 
participants, everyone could see everyone on the screen. SAP has team leaders 
who are not even in the same country as their team. They may only see each 
other every 2 months in person.

When we began agonizing over the question of spending $10,000 on technology for 
hybrid meetings there was disbelief on the part of our tech experts. They spent 
their days managing hybrid meetings for all kinds of clients — the questions we 
were asking were not even raised. It was sort of surreal for them to listen to 
the doubts and assertions of our inexperienced members.

I love Zoom meetings, frankly. I’ve not found in-person meetings better. On 
Zoom I can hear everyone and when someone can’t be heard it’s because they need 
to sit closer to their computer — a simple solution. It also feels more 
organized. It feels like everyone is sitting around the same "conference 
table”. We have too many members to sit in a circle or any shape that allows 
everyone to see and hear each other. Some sit in the corners on soft furniture. 
Some perch in the kitchen so they can connect their laptops to outlets. Some 
sit closer to the kid's room so they can watch children. There is nothing 
organized about the in-person meetings of 35 people.

Perhaps someone knows about the tipping point of how many people in a meeting 
really feel that they are in an intimate meeting before it is just too 
complicated.

Ah, the $10,000. We decided to go with a set up of components that worked well 
together but were independent so they could be used for many other things so we 
wouldn’t feel obligated to do hybrid meetings if we didn’t like them. So we 
were essentially stocking up on mix-and-match technology.

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