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Online meetings (using Zoom)

For the foreseeable future the Parish Council will be holding meetings online using the Zoom meetings application. Even after restrictions are relaxed, and physical meetings can be held in the Parish Hall again, there may still be people who prefer or need to remain isolated. Therefore, the Parish Council will continue to use Zoom to enable people to attend the meetings remotely until further notice.

The Parish Council are using Zoom Pro which enables up to 100 participants to attend at one time and allows meetings of up to 24 hours at a time. A link to the meeting will be sent to all Councillors etc at least a week before the meeting. An email containing the link to the meeting will also be sent to any parishioner who contacts the Clerk (payhemburypc@googlemail.com) and asks to be included in the meeting. Alternatively, individuals can participate in the meeting by following the instructions at 1.2 below. All details about times, dates, meeting IDs and passwords will be published on the Parish Noticeboard and in the Parish Paper, if possible, or by contacting the Clerk. Dates and times of the meetings are also available on this website - http://www.payhemburyparishcouncil.org.uk/default.aspx.

Notes and Tips

  1. You do not need to subscribe to Zoom in order to participate in the meeting.
    1. If you have been sent you an email with the link to the meeting (eg Councillors, etc and anyone who has emailed me to ask to be included), just follow the link provided. You may be asked for the meeting ID and password (which will be in the email) but often they are not needed.
    2. If you have not had an email from me then please got to the webpage zoom.us/join and use the meeting ID and password from the Parish Paper or the noticeboard when prompted.
  2. It works best if you can join via a computer or laptop with a camera, as it will enable all the of the features to be used easily. You can also participate using your smartphone or tablet by downloading the Zoom app if a computer is not possible, but it may be a little trickier to participate.
  3. You will be asked to provide a name when you join, please provide your first name (and surname if you wish). If you do not do this, I will not know who you are and will not let you into the meeting.
  4. It is a good idea for you to attempt to join a couple of minutes before the meeting is due to start, you will be held in an online ‘waiting area’ until the meeting is started.
  5. You should be prompted to test your audio when entering the meeting. Please do this to ensure you can hear and be heard.
  6. You will find yourself muted when you enter the meeting. You will remain muted until you are invited to speak. This is to avoid background noise with the number of participants taking part.
  7. Please, if you can, turn your video on – not only would it be lovely to see you, but it really helps you to feel engaged and participate in the meeting easily.
  8. Within 10 minutes of the meeting starting the meeting will be ‘locked’, which means that no new participants can join. If for any reason you think you may be late joining, or need to leave and come back, please email me or alert me in the chat feature.

Dawn Chamberlain, Parish Clerk

24th April 2020