reminder that the next meeting is on zoom and it requires pre-registration.
Due to technical reasons, approvals for registration will cut off by 12pm on Oct 15 and a deadline will occur for each zoom or zoom hybrid meeting as we are tied up with getting ready for meetings and cannot distribute any meeting resources needed for registrations that occur without enough time before the meeting begins. Sorry for that inconvenience. https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwuf-uvrzwqG9x3h6DLuRYGOPvhtQUczt3g
Also, due to a few challenges that occurred during the last meeting, please note that for in person/zoom hybrids that all zoom attendees will be essentially in listen mode only. To deliver hybrid meeting, we are using borrowed conference gear which in itself also has limitations due to internet bandwidth available which has also been borrowed. There is generally nobody monitoring the zoom meeting during an in person meeting (the chat, cameras feeds, audio feeds, shared screens and entry into the zoom meeting are unattended) and in the event that conference gear is not available, only a camera feed may be available for zoom attendees in that situation. As such, the exec wanted members to know that for in person/hybrid zoom meetings, that the zoom function is offered really only as a listen mode only and that they will not ensure that any other function is reliably or consistently offered for that option. Zoom only meetings will be hosted normally however.
Lastly, a personal apology that during the last meeting we were trying a technology that allows voting on a more confidential basis compared to raising hands where who voted what can be identified by all. This Plicker technology was created for teaching purposes to encourage students to answer questions in a class honestly without fear of answering questions incorrectly in a public setting. To use this technology requires advanced distribution of the Plicker voting card which takes times and does not reliably work for zoom attendees without prior instruction or experience using it so that the vote can be read by the scanning camera. During the last meeting, while the Plicker cards worked flawlessly for the in person attendees, due to several last minute zoom registrations there was no time to reliably distribute and instruct how to use the Plicker cards to anyone who tried to register for zoom with less than 8 hours notice.
During the meeting, due to the challenges of not being able to distribute Plickers to last minute registrants and due to the continued habit of not turning on cameras which is a requirement for voting by our bylaws, several votes had unanimous votes from the in person attendees which numerically meant that online attendees would not be able to outvote the in person attendees. For the interest of time and the reality that the online votes could not change the outcome, the online votes were disregarded. I want to apologize that it was not the intent to not allow online people to vote but that it could not change the outcome. This has also lead to execs wanting to communicate to our members that the zoom hybrid is a listen only option during in person meetings to avoid any future technology difficulties they may have with trying to accommodate it.
Sir James Douglas Elementary PAC 