THE PLAN. Because of the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Governor’s Executive Order of March 23, 2020, all of our lives have changed. Nevertheless, Lansing Rotary intends to carry on and doing so in a very big way. With the assistance of modern technology we are going to give virtual meetings a try starting this Friday. The meeting will be hosted by President Pat and take place using Zoom. WHAT IS ZOOM? Zoom Video Communications is a remote conferencing service which provides a remote conferencing service that combines video conferencing, online meetings, chat, and mobile collaboration. It’s a program for your computer. HOW DO YOU GET ZOOM AND WHAT DOES IT COST? You don’t need to download anything and it costs you nothing to participate. You will receive an invitation from President Pat by email that gives you the time of the meeting. When that time arrives you simply click on the link in the email and it will take you to the meeting. You will be asked a couple of questions with clear prompts and after responding you will be added to the meeting and see everyone participating. WHAT IF I DON’T HAVE COMPUTER ACCESS? If you don’t have video capability on your computer or device, there will be a telephone number by which you can call into the meeting and participate orally. I AM TECHNOLOGY CHALLENGED. CAN I REALLY DO THIS? Absolutely you can. President Pat started using Zoom last week and within literally minutes was participating in a Zoom meeting with other Rotarians doing Rotary business. As they say, “Try it, you’ll like it!” Besides, what do you have to lose? If it doesn’t work just turn off the damn computer. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. WHEN DOES THE MEETING START? Here is the schedule: 1. At 12:15 pm the Zoom room will be available for those that want to log on early and just see what things look like. 2. At 12:30 pm we will have a tutorial for 10 minutes to show how this works. 3. At 12:40 pm we will start the meeting much like our normal in person meeting. We will even have “Special Music”. 4. At 12:57 pm we will introduce our speaker. 5. Speaker starts at 1:00 pm. WHO IS THE SPEAKER AND WHAT IS THE TOPIC? The speaker for our next virtual meeting will be advised soon. FOLLOW UP. Later this week you will get a meeting invitation which will include a live link that gets you into the online meeting. You will also get an email with more details on how to use Zoom. |