Online meeting tips 💻 With more meetings moving online to prepare for #COVID19, I thought I’d share lessons we’ve learned running @MozOpenLeaders (online cohort-based training & mentorship) over the years.  A thread 👇

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Collaborative notes 📝 Have publicly editable shared notes/agenda to use during the meeting (gdocs, etherpad, hackmd, etc). This create multiple modes of contribution & backchannels. It can be hard to speak up in an online call - make sure there’s a place to write and be seen.

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Start with a roll call. After the intro (welcome, CoC reminder, etc), ask everyone to write their name (+ pronouns / location / any other info that’s helpful) in the roll call to show that everyone is invited & expected to write in the notes.

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“Silent gdocing / etherpading” Ask an open ended question (or icebreaker/madlib at the beginning) & give time for people to type their answers in the notes “silently”. Then, the facilitator can verbalize answers/patterns they see & invite ppl to unmute and share.

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Silent gdocing is impotant for emphasizing the importance of notes & validating this mode of contribution. Done early in the call (icebreaker or warmup), this can also give buffer for latecomers (tech issues will happen).

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Encourage async interaction in the notes.  Add a “+1” after comments you agree with. Use comments, emojis, gifs. Answer questions inline when you can. Easiest way to add a gif in a gdoc: Insert > Image > By URL

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Mute liberally, mute quickly 🔇 Background noise, feedback & echo can make a call unbearable. When hosting a call on Zoom, I watch the ‘Participants’ panel. You can tell who is audible at all times and easily mute the person who just answered their phone.

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Use Breakout rooms! Speaking of @zoom_us- breakout room feature is fantastic. This sends participants to smaller Zoom calls in groups you can control (or autogenerate). You can ‘broadcast’ messages to all groups unobtrusively, & they can ‘Ask for help’ to get your attention

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Breakout recipe that works for us:  * 2-3 discussion prompts * 10-15min * 3-4 ppl per group Send broadcasts at regular intervals to make sure everyone has time to share “5mins left, last person should be sharing now” After: ‘shared insights’ section w/ silent gdoc-ing and +1-ing

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That’s all I have! I hope this helps you stay safe & have great online meetings! I learned many of these tips over the years from colleagues @mozilla! Shoutout to @OpenMatt, @chadsansing - @juliesquid shared her thoughts here (& inspired this thread): https://twitter.com/juliesquid/status/1236466720916647936

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Have some of your own tips? Add them here, I’d love to learn more!

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We’ve collected these tips along with some of our favourites you’ve shared in this blog post. Thanks to everyone weighing in on online meetings! https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/blog/online-meeting-tips/

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