Preparing to Zoom



Five members of the FSTM Board clicked their way into an application called Zoom on Friday, March 20th, in a big meeting room provided by Trinity Presbyterian.  After an hour they established that it would not be humanly possible to get everyone “fluent” in Zoom by this coming Friday but they affirmed it can, with time and practice, get done.


Let us make a gallant effort to launch from our laptops and smart phones and tablets!!  And we will communicate in a semblance to a regular Toastmaster meeting at 8:00 to 8:40 AM.  Forty minutes is the maximum time the basic plan allows.  (It's also the maximum time most humans can stand at one time clicking away at buttons until one or more will give in to the temptation to smash a screen.)

President Susann Swan will try to schedule several 40-minute meetings before Friday morning and notify the members of the various time slots so they can choose one that fits into their schedules.




·         She will send an email to the general membership with the practice (ie non toastmaster) Zoom meetings number in the email and the hyperlink to Zoom so they may join the meeting and join Zoom if they do not already use Zoom.



·         During these practice gatherings, the members can practice the different features in Zoom.  If a member is struggling with it, Susann will document that these members need some one-on-one coaching at a later date. 
  


·         She said she can work on line or meet 3’ apart with these members individually to get them going on Zoom.



·         She said if only 8 of our members are able to get into Zoom and participate, we should  go ahead with the meeting, having the 8 members fill in roles.  Maybe all roles cannot be filled, but we’d need a timer, evaluator, TT Master.  The other roles maybe for later meetings as we get more comfortable using Zoom.



·         This may take another week or two to get everyone able to function in Zoom.  If we affirm our commitment to the membership that we will work with them until they can do Zoom by themselves, Susan thinks we will keep everyone's  interest.







Above you see three windows in the "Gallery," which represents three speakers on their devices.  Karen Alexander was on her smart phone showing great ease at Zooming



Don Groff eventually found his way onto the landscape.  Stan Coss never did find his way.  He insisted that it was simply the Wi-Fi connection that was holding him back.  But, truth be told, he probably met more than his technical ability could absorb in his first morning of  Zoom. 




Here below is the gallery of the Ridgefield Club that met in Asheville from eight different locations at noon Friday.  One used a tablet in her car as she said things were too noisy inside her house.  
That club just has ten members to pool their expertise, 
but several had previous experience with routine Zooming
 as part of their business.


Four Seasons Toastmasters, we CAN do this!


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