I’ve attended zoom functions quite a bit. I have the app and even have a boatload of virtual backgrounds at the ready. Next month is my annual turn to host my book club of 10 members. (I guess this means I get to eat all the snacks and drink all the wine… and I don’t even have to clean the bathroom. Win-win-win!)
I haven’t hosted a zoom meeting before, but how hard can it be, right? The main glitch is the 40-minute limit for the free level. Apparently there isn’t a free trial period but it looks like I can sign up for a month and then cancel. On the zoom help page it says:
When you go to Zoom’s Billing page, you will have the option to select a Monthly or Annual Plan.
You are able cancel your subscription(s) at any time before the next billing cycle.
I just want to make sure this is really true. I can sign up a week before book club and cancel right after? Why am I suspicious? Well, I joined the Columbia Record Club once upon a time. You old folks will get what I mean.
I’ve been watching some YouTube videos and they’re pretty straightforward. Any tips or pitfalls I should be aware of?
Aside: with uncharacteristic foresight luck, I bought zoom stock back when it was $75 and now it’s $268.57.
Have you been meeting virtually for a while now? My book club has. We rotate hosting when in person, but the same person has set up the virtual meeting each time.
Is there any point in changing who hosts the meeting aside from having a new person grapple with accounts and technical problems? Why not just have whoever set up the past meetings set it up again?
I don’t know if it’s still the case, but during the height of the pandemic (April-June) they weren’t imposing the limit on the zoom meetings that I had participated in. I don’t have a zoom license. Is it the host that initiates the meeting that is required to have a license?
We’ve been meeting for 20 years, but virtually only for the last three times.
I could ask someone to do it who’s done it before. But if it’s simple, I don’t mind adding another techie skill to my set. Dog knows I got nuttin’ else to do. Is there really that much to “grapple” with. Looking over the zoom site, setup seems pretty straightforward: you set up the meeting and email everyone the link and the password. That’s why I’m asking here-- is there some technical pitfall that I’m not aware of?
The book club met last night on zoom (a different person from the usual one set it up), and I didn’t attend, but I got all the emails and texts, “I didn’t get the link!” and “For me to come in, you have to let me in!” This group is challenged in the email department and most don’t have a head for techie details. Inevitably someone gets left off the monthly notice because the sender doesn’t count the names before she sends to make sure there are 9 names included (plus her own).
I’m in a writer’s club, as Webmaster, and have been hosting Zoom meetings for a while. We do our monthly meetings, with a speaker, on Zoom, with 30 attendees. It has worked out well. We do our board meetings on Zoom, and I just finished hosting a critique group of 5 on Zoom. I’ve also hosted a couple of Zoom dinners with our neighbors.
The club bought a license, but I’ve done some on a guest basis. You can use the same meeting information to restart the meeting after 40 minutes. Kind of a pain but not too bad. Everyone has to call back in.
As for scheduling a meeting, it is very easy. You download the app, even on a pc, which you do the first time. If you have been participating, you might already have it downloaded. You click “Schedule a Meeting,” fill in the date and time, then click the audio method - audio only. There are a bunch of other options which you don’t have to worry about.
Once you do that you get another page which has a button for copy invitation. Click that, and an invitation pops up. Copy it and paste it into an email for your attendees. It has a link to join the meeting.
When it is meeting time, or a few minutes before, go to your meetings page and you’ll see your meeting with a “Start this Meeting” button. Click that, click on open Zoom App, and you’re meeting will start. All your attendees get put into a waiting room, so you should click on the “Participants” button when your meeting starts, and you’ll see them. Hover over their names and you’ll see an “Admit” button. Click on that and they get let in. You’ll see who has their video and audio on.
You can mute people and have all sorts of powers, but you don’t need to worry about that for a book club.
I’ve got people over 80 in the club, and they don’t have any problems with it, so you’ll find it very simple.
Zoom also has reasonably clear video tutorials about how to do it. You can practice by starting a meeting with no attendees, and watch the video if you have any problems.
The link and the password are both in the invitation I mentioned, and when they click the link they don’t need to enter the password. Zoom by default creates a new one for each meeting to reduce the odds of Zoom bombing.
Very helpful, @Voyager, thank you! Everyone has a web cam and attends via computer or tablet. One person attended by phone once, but the “shaky cam” effect of holding her phone up in the air just about drove us nuts.
I think I will sign up for it and then cancel after a month. I’ll try it out with a couple of other friends first.
Password is good. Password (conveyed by email, not on a public Facebook page) keeps your group from getting Zoom bombed with a porn video (as happened in one of the groups I participate in).
