A new committee, not in the annual report yet. Indoor Meetings and Birding Wing meetings are held at the Civic Garden Complex. The CGC has an excellent sound system, screen, wifi, and room layout. CGC staff set up the lectern, screen, sound system, tables and chairs ahead of time based on Nature London’s stated requirements.
Background
At the start of the pandemic, all in-person meetings were cancelled. Like other organizations, Nature London embraced Zoom meetings. As pandemic restrictions eased, we returned to the CGC. However, seating capacity was restricted to only 60 participants. Enough Nature London members indicated they like the flexibility of attending in person or remotely (via Zoom). This required the development of a hybrid meeting solution with both in person and remote attendees. It is still a work in progress.
The Hardware Involved
The following hardware is provided by Nature London and set up by the Hybrid Committee.
- Projector
- Laptop and accessories
- Microphone stand
- External microphone
- Webcam and stand
- Power and signal cables
- 25-foot HDMI cable
- Host laptop or tablet
- USB memory sticks
The Zoom Software
The committee also manages the Zoom meetings
- scheduling
- providing link to meeting organizers
- starting the Zoom meeting and recording
- monitoring the waiting room
- granting permission for the presenter to share screen over Zoom
- monitoring the remote user experience
- sharing questions in the chat with the CGC audience
- sending the meeting
- downloading the video recording in one large file
- trimming the file for just the presentation
- sending the file to the YouTube committee
Current Membership
The committee has the following members
- Glenn Berry, current custodian of the gear
- Gordon Neish, Nature London’s first Zoom manager
- Garth Casbourn, Birding Wing’s Zoom manager
Contact the committee via Glenn Berry nlwebguy@gmail.com
P.S.
It would be fun to have an animal icon for the committee. I always thought the centaurs were noble creatures.