Canceled Meetings

I never dreamed that I would be writing this column. Because, I am not the type of expert we are looking for. However these are exceptional times and we are doing exceptional things.

In the Publisher’s Note I talked about some of the various things we could do to help people settle into this new routine. Since new routines are always disturbing, we want to help people get re-adjusted. My number one item and something that many people are ignoring is the idea of simply moving the meeting on-line. Since this is simply a technical challenge, I feel that I can tackle this subject. We are going to address a couple of technologies in this article. These are not the only products available by any means, they are simply the ones that am familiar with.

Keep the format as close to the in-person meeting as possible.

If your meeting was worth anything other than a social gathering, then the meeting provided value to the members. You spent the time getting a venue and setting up the venue space every week or month. Devote the same amount of time to your on-line meeting and you will be rewarded. Plan the on-line version at the same time as the local version was held. If you had introductions, then a guest speaker, then announcements, keep these options.

Let people know.

You should have the email addresses for all of your members, use this list to inform your members. They won’t know about the meeting unless you tell them. And they won’t attend unless they know about the meetings

Need Help? Ask a meeting planner. MPI.com.

Zoom.com This is the system that I use the most, It was designed for on-line meetings.

Facebook Live This is a system that I learned from my daughter.She is a minister trained at Columbia and this is the system she uses for all of her regular sermons.