• Greet people as they log on, let them know you will be getting started shortly, and orient them to the chat.
• Consider sharing something useful or fun while people are waiting. For example, Medfield, MA hosted a meeting that played a video of Medfield Porchfest. Other meetings have shared a how-to/instructional slide for participants or played music.
• Periodically update the chat with an introductory message so that new Participants can see it as they join
• Mute Participants as they sign on. Some platforms allow you to set this function ahead of time, for others you may need to mute manually.
• Create and an activity or icebreaker that people can do while they sign on and while they wait for the meeting to get started.
• You may want to ask Participants to pin the host so that they are on the big screen in order to see what they are doing. In the Participants page (accessed through the toolbar at the bottom), click on the host’s name and select “pin”

Note: if your platform has a Waiting Room feature, like Zoom does, consider using it to control how and when attendees can log in to your meeting. Zoom allows you to message participants in the waiting room and to customize your waiting room with images and language specific to your meeting. Instructions here.

Introductions or an ice breaker may not be feasible if your meeting is large. If your meeting is small, write down names of who is on the call at the beginning so you do not have to toggle between participants list and the chat.

• • If you know somebody on the call, ask them to introduce themselves and share a fun fact to break the ice. This is a great chance to use the Model Participant staff role

Put your view on Gallery View so that you can see everyone at once.

• • You can do this by hovering your mouse over top of your Zoom window, clicking “View Options” and selecting “Gallery View”

Give people a tour of the virtual space at the beginning, including:

• • What screen sharing looks like
  • How to mute/unmute themselves and turn their camera on/off
  • How to use the chat (how to get to it, what to post in it, etc.)

Set some participation ground rules at the beginning of your meeting

• • Ask participants to remain muted unless called upon
  • Ask participants to direct questions to the chat or Q&A and have staff respond there.

Sharing your screen can increase engagement and help orient people to where you are in the meeting.

• • From the Consensus Building Institute: Rather than just sharing the presentation, periodically display summary information or questions so people can engage with the issues at hand and participate actively. Keep a summary slide updated along the way and share it toward the end of the conversation, much like you might do on a white board or flip chart. Avoid taking notes onscreen as it can be distracting.

If you are having a long meeting you may want to take breaks, set a specific time for people to stretch their legs, use the bathroom, get some water, etc.

• • From the Consensus Building Institute: Taking breaks will make them better Participants. Furthermore, in CBI’s experience, online meetings that last longer than three hours can draw energy and focus away from the work. Meetings that were formally all-day affairs are better off broken up into two or more components spread out over a few days or a week.
  • For a shorter break, you can invite everyone to stand and do a short stretch. This is a great way to keep folks engaged and get the body moving a little bit!

During your presentation, pause periodically (more than usual) and ask for questions etc.

Avoid asking open ended questions

• • Instead of asking ‘How is everyone doing?’, consider “Can everyone show me how they are doing with a thumbs up, middle, down?”
  • When asking people to participate and respond, remember to call on specific people who could be raising their hand (via video or the raise hand function) or have already put their question in the chat. By calling on people specifically, folks know when to unmute themselves, and there is less confusion around what to do next.

When asking questions, wait longer than normal for a response:

• • There may be a delay in response, wait a minute before re-prompting, as it may take folks a minute to unmute themselves and/or for the sound to get through.

Model good participation

• • Have your webcam on, have your staff monitoring the chat respond to people in the chat, and mute yourself when others are talking. You may also consider adding an example question to the chat

Narrate your meeting: If your meeting is a procedural meeting, if you are in a Webinar, if you are utilizing the hand raising feature for public comment, or if you need to follow an inflexible process we recommend that you narrate what is happening for your participants. Normally, they would be able to observe these things, like the line to give testimony. In Zoom, particularly in Webinar, this is not possible. Narrating will help them understand what is going on.

Read Polls out loud: if you are using Zoom Polls (instructions here), consider reading the text of the poll out loud for your participants.

• • Give constant reminders to use the chat box throughout the conversation!
  • Respond to people in the chat box (thank them for the question or respond to the thought they shared)

Webinar Q&A
Webinars have a public Q&A feature that attendees can use to ask questions. Newly posted questions are listed as “open.” Panelists, cohosts, and the host can answer any open questions in two ways: by typing a direct reply to the question or by marking “I would like to answer this live” and addressing the question verbally. After answering the question live click “done” to mark the question as answered. You can also dismiss questions that are not relevant. You can change the settings to allow for anonymous questions, to let attendees respond to and like questions, and to let attendees see open questions in addition to answered questions. You can find more information here.

It is helpful to take notes throughout the meeting on participants’ comments as they come up or on any additional thoughts that may be added throughout the facilitation process.

• • If you would like to share these notes, you can take live notes on a presentation slide that you are updating throughout the process using Slides.com

Accessibility note: Make sure to periodically give a verbal update to people (this is especially helpful for folks who may be dialing in or not able to see the screen)

Check in periodically with people and ask them to give you a thumbs up to make sure they are still with you as you are explaining a concept. If they are experiencing technology difficulties, remind them to connect with the Tech Support person.

Things will break or not work, and this is okay! Ask Participants to wait a bit and explain that you are troubleshooting the problem. Work with your tech support staffer to troubleshoot.

• • If the issue is with the audio, log in on your phone app as a guest. Plug in one headphone to listen to what other people are hearing.

Under state wiretapping statutes, in order to record a call/meeting all parties must give their verbal or written consent.

To record or not to record? If the topic of the meeting includes sensitive material and/or you are asking participants to share personal information, it might be better not to record to ensure participants are most comfortable.

Before your event: If you plan to record the meeting, you must let participants know! Make sure to include this information in email and calendar invitation language, make an announcement at start of meeting, and post a written announcement in the webinar chat prior to the recording starting.

• • Some webinar programs also let you use a “recording disclaimer” that allows Participants to opt out of the meeting if they do not want to be recorded. Instructions for how to enable this in Zoom are here.

During your event: If you are planning to record your webinar, ask all participants to give their verbal consent before you start recording. Anyone who does not consent to being recorded should be advised that they should not participate on the call. Additionally, you can provide a slide at the beginning of any presentation you may have to let people know the meeting is going to be recorded.

After the event: Make sure you obtain the link or file for the recording and publish it wherever is appropriate.

Chat function: All chat posts from public meetings and webinars are subject to Public Records Law.

• • We recommend that you simply say: assume that what you say can be accessed and viewed by the public and do not say anything that you would not say to your parents or children.

You can create up to 50 breakout rooms in Zoom. Breakout rooms can be used to hold smaller group discussions during a larger meeting. The maximum number of participants in a single breakout room depends on the meeting capacity and number of breakout rooms created:

• • In order to use breakout rooms, you need to first enable them in your account. Follow the instructions here.
  • After you start a meeting, follow these instructions to start and manage your breakout rooms.
  • Self-Select Update: as of September 21st, Zoom allows participants to self-select breakout rooms and to move between rooms once they have selected one. This feature is available only on Zoom accounts updated to 5.3.1. To use this feature, simply select “Let participants choose room” when setting up breakout rooms. Information for how to do this as a participant is here.
    • Note, this feature does not work with ChromeOS (the operating system on Chromebooks).

When considering whether to use breakout rooms, keep the following in mind:

• • Only hosts can start, manage, and end breakout rooms (co-hosts do not have this power). In addition, only hosts can move between breakout rooms (unless you allow participants to self-select their room).
  • You can assign participants to a room in two ways:
    • Automatically: Let Zoom split your participants up evenly into each of the rooms. This is by far the easiest and most efficient method, particularly if you have a large meeting.
    • Manually: Choose which participants you would like in each room. This would be useful for when you know the participants and want to curate the breakout rooms yourself.
    • Participant Choice: Allows participants to choose which room to join and enables them to move between rooms after joining. You must create the rooms in advance.
  • After you create your rooms, you can select “options” at the bottom of the room window to toggle other settings, including:
    • Allowing participants to leave their room
    • Closing rooms automatically after a set period of time
    • Notifying participants with a countdown for when their room will close.
  • After assigning participants to rooms, you can rearrange the participants, delete any rooms, and add new rooms.
  • Participants who are not assigned to breakout rooms will stay in the main meeting room when the rooms are started (unless you are allowing them to self-select).
  • Participants can request help from inside their breakout rooms. As host, you should receive a notification asking whether you want to respond.
  • It is not possible to use Zoom Polls in breakout rooms.
  • The host can communicate with all breakout rooms by using the Broadcast feature.
  • Cloud recording will only record the main room, however you can locally record in breakout rooms.
  • Interpretation and closed captioning do not work in breakout rooms.
  • All chats in the breakout room chat are only visible to the people in that breakout room, even after you return to the main room.
  • Participant will be able to unmute themselves in a breakout room even if they are not able to in the main room.

Zoom Polls allow you to create single- or multiple-choice questions that you can deploy live during your meeting. You can create up to 25 separate polls and each poll can have multiple questions. In order to use Zoom Polls you must first enable them in your account. All results from your meeting or webinar’s polls will be available for download in the Meeting Reports tab in your account settings. More information about how to set up and deploy polls can be found here.

When considering whether and how to use Zoom Polls during your meeting, keep the following in mind:

• Zoom Polls can be a useful way to engage attendees but they can also be disruptive to the flow of the meeting if you use too many. Consider spacing your polls out during your meeting.
• Zoom allows you to include multiple questions in an individual poll, however participants will have to scroll down in the poll box to view and answer additional questions.
• While Zoom Polls are very useful, you can only ask single- or multiple-choice questions. More dynamic and interactive polling options are available with external programs like Poll Everywhere or Sli.do
• Zoom Polls do not work for participants who join on their web browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, etc.)
  • Likewise, Zoom Polls will not work for participants who have Chromebooks with the ChromeOS operating system.
• You are able to add new Polls during your meeting, provided you have enabled them first, however you must do this in your meeting in the Web Portal.
• Occasionally Zoom Polls appear behind open Zoom windows. If participants are not seeing the polls, this may be the reason.
• If participants accidentally ‘x’ out of their poll it may prevent them from seeing subsequent polls.