From the 2020 Spring Issue of Freedom From Bondage Print/PDF Newsletter
Region 5 has budgeted to provide video conference service to facilitate online committee and intergroup meetings between assemblies. This service provides the ability:
- for committees to meet virtually via video conferencing on computers, tablets, and mobile devices
- to share a white board, apps, and screen for collaboration effort
- for virtual voting / polling
Region 5 Committees and Intergroups can request an online meeting by sending an email to R5Host@Outlook.com. When you send the request please provide the following information:
- Name of Region 5 Committee or Intergroup.
- Purpose of the meeting.
- For example: Committee Meeting, Intergroup Meeting, Intergroup Board meeting
- Outside of the above list of purposes will require approval by the Region 5 Board.
- Recovery groups may want to utilize the video conference service during this time when Face-to-Face meetings are not possible. The Region 5 account would be easily overwhelmed by such requests, so for this reason Region 5 is encouraging Recovery groups to purchase their own accounts. If you need help doing this please contact the Region 5 Secretary for assistance.
- Date and Time of the meeting.
- If the meeting is recurring, please provide a list of specific date and times to schedule the meeting. We cannot schedule meeting for a specific weekend of the month as so many Intergroup meetings are scheduled.
- Please indicate the time zone.
- Duration of the meeting. 1 to 2 hours is typical.
- Please indicate if you need the meeting private and locked down. To do this the meeting will need be encrypted and locked with a password. It may also require prior registration. For the most part this isn’t necessary for our online meetings. It is much more difficult to set up a private meeting. Also, the chances of someone uninvited joining a regular meeting is minimal.
- Name and email of the OA person who will hosting the meeting. An online meeting host is the person who starts and ends the meeting, has the ability to record the meeting, and can control participant access. A host is not necessary, however it is best to have someone designated the host, if only to end the meeting properly. If you do not specify the host then the requester will be designated the host.
- 7. Polls need to be created ahead of time. If you are planning on using the polling feature for voting, please indicate in your request the questions and various answers you need for your polls. Only the designated host can initiate a polling question.
Online meetings should be scheduled as far in the future as you can reasonably request. Only one Region 5 Committee or Intergroup can utilize the service at a time. The Coordinator of Virtual Meetings uses the R5Host account calendar to schedule the meetings an prevent two group from having a meeting at the same time. When you request a meeting at a specific date and time you may be told that date and time slot is already occupied. We also typically leave a 30-minute window before and after the meeting so that people may join without interrupting an ongoing meeting. If you request a meeting within the two weeks before the requested date and time, you run the increasing risk the date and time slot is already occupied. Please be flexible and request an alternate date and time if the initial request is denied.
When the meeting is scheduled the Coordinator of Virtual meetings will send out two emails. First is a meeting request and invitation. This email includes instructions on how to connect to the online meeting. It should be forwarded to all participants. The second email is the host designation. It is sent only to the designated host. This email has full instructions on how to claim the host privilege and how to properly host the meeting. Please do not pass this email anybody but the person hosting the meeting.
You can find additional information on online meetings in the Assembly Information document on pages 13 and 14.
— Joel I., Region 5 Secretary