Online Board Meeting
February 3rd, 2016
by John Rich
New Commodore Honey Leveen is dragging the HCC Board of Directors, some of them kicking and screaming, into the 21st century!
On February 3rd, the monthly board meeting was held online for the first time ever. This was accomplished using the Join.Me web site, which allows people to sign in to a joint meeting, and share audio and video together. Best of all, it's free for up to 10 people. Since many board members have to drive an hour or more in rush hour traffic to get to the Baytown Community Center for a physical meeting, this can provide some welcome convenience, to conduct club business from the comfort of their own homes. Audio and video quality were acceptable, and we just need to figure out how to share documents or computer screens with the entire group.
The biggest issue seems to be incompatible computers. Recorder Frank Ohrt spent several hours upgrading his software to match what is needed to operate with the Join.Me site, but then he lost his connection half-way through the meeting. For computers without microphones, a phone number can be called for audio. As with any teleconferencing, when you're not speaking you want to mute your microphone so that background noise like televisions and crying babies don't interfere.
All in all, it worked out fairly well for a first attempt with this technology.
Below, Bob Naeger, Honey Leveen, and Harmon Everett show up on the Join.me screen via their web cameras:
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| The author, John Rich |