Technology options
Remote Meetings
With the current suspension of meetings and the risks regarding the spread of COVID-19, in the words of the First Presidency, “where possible, leaders should conduct any essential leadership meetings via technology.” Here are a few ways to do that.
conferencing Option
Zoom
A simple solution to do video conferences.
Pros
- no account needed by participants, only the person hosting the meeting
- free accounts available with limitations
- set up the meeting in advance
Cons
- You must secure your meeting– please see warning below
- 40 minute limit on free accounts… maybe not such a bad thing
- software does have to be installed for each participant
Get Started
All participants:
For mobile devices, install the app. On desktop or laptop computers, visit https://zoom.us/test and you’ll be prompted to install the software if you don’t already have it. Once you have the software installed, visit that same page to test your speakers, microphone, and video camera with the Zoom software.
Host:
The person hosting the meeting must create a Zoom account. Look for the ‘Sign up, it’s Free’ blue button at https://zoom.us to do so.
- In line with security advice below, first go to ‘Settings’ on the right hand side. Scroll down to “Screen sharing” and under “Who can share?” click “Host Only”. Then save.
- Along the left you’ll see a ‘Meetings’ menu option. Click that.
- You’ll see a ‘Schedule a New Meeting’ button. Click that.
- In the ‘Topic’ option, enter the name for your meeting.
- Under ‘When’ click the calendar icon to set the day, then the other select boxes to choose a time.
- Important: In the ‘Meeting Password’ section, make sure ‘Require meeting password’ is checked and there is a strong, random password there. I believe it fills by default, but you can generate one to use here if needed. Even a simple password is better than nothing but make sure you don’t use your Zoom account password!
- Under ‘Meeting Options’ check the ‘Join before Host’ option.
- Once you click the ‘Save’ button, you’ll be taken to a page with details about connecting. Look for the link about halfway down the page, to the right, that says “Copy the invitation”. Click that and a window will pop up with connection details you can send to all the participants.
Important Security Note
Zoom tries to make it very easy to join a meeting, which is good. But because of this, it’s not hard for “bad guys” to guess the links for Zoom meetings. If you do not require a password, you risk having random people join the meeting and disrupt it.
It’s enough of a problem in the current crisis that the FBI has weighed in on how to use Zoom better:
- Do not make meetings or classrooms public. In Zoom, there are two options to make a meeting private: require a meeting password or use the waiting room feature and control the admittance of guests.
- Do not share a link to a teleconference or classroom on an unrestricted publicly available social media post. Provide the link directly to specific people.
- Manage screensharing options. In Zoom, change screensharing to “Host Only.” Click here for more detail
- Ensure users are using the updated version of remote access/meeting applications. In January 2020, Zoom updated their software. In their security update, the teleconference software provider added passwords by default for meetings and disabled the ability to randomly scan for meetings to join.
conferencing Option
Google Hangouts
Video chat from Google.
Pros
- free
- once you’ve chatted once, easy to go back in to chat again. In fact, by default it’s a text chat solution, so you can continue your group discussion via text chat indefinitely and jump into video when needed.
Cons
- Google plans to phase out ‘classic’ Google Hangouts in June 2020. I suspect they may extend this.
- every participant needs to have a Google account, whether that’s a Gmail email account or creating a Google account solely for this purpose.
- each participant has to be individually added to the chat group
- no way to set up the meeting in advance
- software does have to be installed for each participant
conferencing Option
Facetime
Video chat from Apple.
Pros
- free
Cons
- every participant needs to have a Mac or iOS device and Apple account. Because of this, we do not recommend this solution. If someone does not have an Apple device, they are excluded.
I haven’t had time to make notes about other options, but of course, there are many. Here are a few links:
Skype – straightforward video solution
Microsoft Teams – messaging, doc sharing, video conferencing. consumer version available later this year, but possible to so sign up free as a business or school
Uberconference – phone, video conferencing free for the current crisis, up to 50 people
Slack – messaging, doc sharing, video conferencing. Intended for business teams.