Two Annual General meetings back to back, Westmill Solar Coop – where I’m a director and Westmill Wind Coop – which I chair. For the first time the meetings were entirely on-line, which has involved quite a lot of preparation and additional Zoom licences.
The big day arrived, the last physical conference in May 2019 had 58 wind members attending, this year around 119 took part. So the on-line version allowed more people to participate.
There’s a time saving, and some people could get involved who could never have done so before (like the member dialling in from Tenerife).
Hopefully next year we will have a physical gathering, but I’m sure there will be an on-line element from now on.
Lessons learnt?
- Get the right Zoom package – we used the webinar function, which is necessary for more than 100 participants – but which gives you additional control as meeting organisers (its worth it).
- Practice – and make sure you are using the Zoom version you will use on the day, the webinar is slightly different from other options. It allows you to have on-line voting (which works well).
- Ensure the person chairing is not also managing the zoom meeting, its far too much for one person to handle.
- Have a back-up organiser (who may also be sharing their screen with presentations etc) and Chair, connections can and do go down.
- Remind people on the day – you will be amazed how many people can’t find their Zoom invitations.
- Make sure the people presenting log in with the right authorisation (different from delegate) or they will not be able to take part.
- Be super careful using the “chat” function – its very easy to sent a message to every participant when you really only intended to send it to people who are presenting.
markluntley 