In one organization I work with, we have occasional 20-30-person conference calls. It’s a real hassle both technically and logistically, what with the constant join/leave announcements, phone reception and feedback issues, background noise (I swear Darth Vader is secretly on our team), and the need of having facilitators dictate speaking orders so people don’t all talk at once.
Needless to say, the entire process is frustratingly counter-productive and in a typical hour-long session, we only get maybe 20 min of actual work done.
What are some better methods that you’ve used or heard of? Over in GQ, I asked about online chat, but is there anything better? I looked into Google Wave a few times, but it seemed impossibly complicated. It doesn’t necessarily have to be software-based either; if you just have tips for better teleconferencing or whatever, by all means, pitch in
In addition to Citrix’s Go To Meeting, Microsoft’s offering is Livemeeting. Webex is commonly used. I believe Cisco has an offering. AT&T does as well.
Be prepared to pay through the nose for a corporate solution.
P.S. I did not see that you are looking for something free. I would take the trial offer on this and then if it works well, get it. $50 a month is a steal, even for a small non-profit. Or I think you can use it as a pay-per-go thing as well.
I consult for non-profits and I use this software exclusively. It pays for itself by heightening productivity in online meetings thus making us more money…so…
Oops, I forgot to mention that we’re a very new organization and likely can’t afford any corporate pricing schemes. It doesn’t have to be free (although that’d be nice), but minimal cost would be great.
Much more effective than our phone meetings, at least
Hmm… after examining what they offer, it seems awesome for the future, perhaps, but right now it’s overkill for $50/mo. We’re not small, we’re not even tiny; at this point we’re somewhere between minuscule and microscopic, and if we have $50 /mo lying around, it’ll probably have to go towards food to feed our volunteer staff, heh. Our tech budget is currently along the lines of $50 / year.
I called their sales staff and they do offer significant discounts to nonprofits, but we’d have to be 501(c)3 registered, which we aren’t (at least not independently) at this point.
Microsoft Shared View would work for you, I think. We can’t use it because it isn’t supported and we have security issues over the public internet - but we are Large Evil Corporation, not Minuscule Non-Profit. There are a few more meeting software solutions that are free.
If you all have solid internet connections, consider using Skype. I routinely use their service to call people all over the world for conference calls. (I have used them for up to 6 people at the same time, all in different locations without issue.) Their website says you can have up to 25 people. You can call landlines and mobile phones (at either a per minute cost or they have monthly plans - which is a steal for US at $3/mo). The online version is free, so it’s just a matter of having a headset. The downside is that one person has to initiate; there is no centralized line to call. And if someone drops off, they have to be called to rejoin. You can also chat at the same time that you are talking.
They may have even more functionality that I’m not aware of, so I would suggest digging around their site.
Just a suggestion, check out services like Google Wave. I work for a small non-profit but often need to collaborate with other employees while being at my desk monitoring my students at the same time, so any kind of document sharing/chat works great for that. We also share our documents by getting every work email address a Dropbox.com account, which a few of us use anyways for other reasons, and share a folder between them. These may aid in making the call a little more productive - but notoriously, every company I’ve worked for has used conference calls, and at least 90% of them have gone badly.
