If we were having office meetings, I would agree. Speaking in a group setting
has never been an issue for me. Turn all the chairs towards me and the anxiety
skyrockets. Speaking in front of a group is not the same as speaking within a
group. I would not support this type of solution. We must find a way to keep a
stage presence. I believe this is what we have lost during this zoom
environment. We will get there. Monday will be another test meeting with some
additional ideas and equipment. The difficulty lies in the expectations of a
TV crowd. Television has made audience members feel priveledged and special.
TV gets the best seat in the house. They also get advertising revenue. We
should do the best we can, but not at the financial sacrifice of the club nor
physical sacrifice of the attendees who have made the drive to the site. Those
that have an option should be rewarded for taking the extra time and effort.
Those are just my opinions,
Robin, your more humble secretary (Alan already penned “your humble secretary”)
Sent from Mail<https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for Windows 10
From: J. K.<mailto:jonathan.kolber@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, July 16, 2021 10:18 AM
To: Bill Farrand<mailto:whfarrand@xxxxxxx>
Cc: frtm<mailto:frtm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: FRTM - Re: thoughts on live vs. virtual vs. hybrid meetings
Looking at Bill's ideas, I'm thinking that we all need to get creative here as
he has done.
I really like what the Owl does, and maybe we could get TMI or District 26 to
pay half and we pay half on a pilot basis. (I'm skeptical, but I can ask.)
Alternately, maybe we put it on financing and the club raises dues a little bit
to cover that. (Also, last I recall, we had hundreds of dollars in the bank
account.)
Maybe TMI could guarantee the loans, but only for Distinguished clubs (which
helps to assure payment).
The Owl reminded me that there are omni directional mikes, some much less
expensive than the Owl. Another idea would be to use a different physical
layout of chairs, maybe a semi circle around such a mike. The speaker would
then stand in the center, near that mike.
Anyone commenting could be heard by all whether virtual or in person, but only
the speaker would be seen by all. Virtual people would need a way to get
recognized, so they could "take the floor" and appear on the big screen.
We'd need someone whose role was similar to (maybe identical to) our current
Zoom master.
If there's a device like this that's cost effective, maybe we get one and try
it on Amazon's one month return privilege.
I think we should consider having a chunk of meeting discussion time for this
topic.
On Fri, Jul 16, 2021, 8:40 AM Bill Farrand
<whfarrand@xxxxxxx<mailto:whfarrand@xxxxxxx>> wrote:
Hey All,
Walking with my dogs this morning (where I get all my best ideas), I was
thinking about the question discussed last night about getting back to live
meetings and trying to keep the remote people engaged. So, two ideas... one
maybe just a short term solution and one maybe too expensive.
1) Maybe if the hybrid thing isn't working as currently conceived, we could
just alternate live and virtual meetings. You know... week 1- live, week 2-
virtual, week 3- live, etc. Yes, the remote folks would miss out every other
week, but do we all attend every meeting anyway? I don't think this is a long
term solution, but at least it gets us meeting live again.
2) This would be probably too expensive for the club, but my research institute
has a lot (most actually) remote researchers and we use this thing called "the
Owl" (I'll link it below). We use it around a conference table and that's
probably the best setting for it, but it turns around to face whoever is
speaking... so that seems to work really well. It is pretty pricey though...
https://owllabs.com/<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fowllabs.com%2Fproducts%2Fmeeting-owl-pro%3Fcurrency%3DUSD%26utm_medium%3Dcpc%26utm_source%3Dgoogle%26utm_campaign%3DGoogle%2520Shopping%26utm_source%3Dadwords%26utm_campaign%3DSmart%2BShopping%2BTEST_US%26utm_medium%3Dppc%26utm_term%3D%26hsa_kw%3D%26hsa_mt%3D%26hsa_tgt%3Dpla-858325512714%26hsa_src%3Du%26hsa_ad%3D501280683992%26hsa_ver%3D3%26hsa_cam%3D12427885179%26hsa_net%3Dadwords%26hsa_acc%3D2493962266%26hsa_grp%3D118324840517%26gclid%3DCjwKCAjw3MSHBhB3EiwAxcaEu-_qnp2S1XvDWyPgjYalAP1AVSs4VMV-AcxLMclBK5_Cmo5E5DgYcRoChTEQAvD_BwE&data=04%7C01%7C%7Cc5419dd6231941425b6608d948755d14%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637620491170594749%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=PauXmcKYXda5L9QLjhfLd66FPFgvETR02cnM3fRXm6w%3D&reserved=0>
Something to think about...
Bill
