If this is your first time to join us virtually, please review this page.

Preparation:

  1. Sign up — if you don’t have a Zoom account, please sign up here first.
  2. If this is your first time and you haven’t installed the Zoom client, you will be prompted to download and install it.
    You can familiarize yourself with Zoom at https://zoom.us/test.
  3. Get a password for the meeting.  We will send one a few days before the meeting.

Join a meeting:

  1. Open the Zoom client.
  2. Enter the meeting ID number and your display name. (If you have a role, please put the role’s name before your name. ex. “GE Your Name”)
  3. Enter the password that is provided from StoryMasters. If you forget or need one, please email Tina or Miyo prior to the meeting.  Once the meeting starts, we may not be able to check our emails.  Please make sure to have the right password before the meeting.

Reference: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362193-Joining-a-Meeting

Etiquette:

Virtual meetings are similar to in-person meetings.

  • Be prepared — don’t try to figure things out at the last minute.  Check the “How to” section on this page and solve any technical issues beforehand.
    • Adjust lighting — no bright light behind you.  Close a blind if there is a window behind you.
    • Test audio and video.
    • Learn how to mute and unmute.
    • Learn how to use Do Not Disturb mode.
  • Join the meeting at least five minutes before the meeting.
  • Enable your video if you can.  We would love to see your smiles!
  • Be fully present — don’t multitask. Somebody is watching you!
  • Remain mute when you are not speaking. (Don’t feel obligated to unmute and clap hands.)
  • Do not share the password without our permission.  Although we would love to welcome everybody with open arms, we do not want to be disrupted by Zoom-bombers.  Our goal is to create a safe environment for our storytelling community.
  • Please keep your Zoom client up to date in order to protect your and others’ personal information.

Disclaimer:

Please do know that your screen will NOT be recorded unless you are a speaker.  We record our speakers when they tell their stories.  Our videographer pins the speaker’s screen so that nobody else’s screen is recorded.  Before recording starts, you will be notified.  Please do not leave the meeting.  Click “Continue” and enjoy the storytime!

How to…

Adjust lighting

  • Ideally, natural light is shaded, and only controlled or non-natural lighting is being used within the room.
  • Indirect light is recommended in a video conference to avoid washing out of images with high luminance.

Considerations:

  • Black out shades or diffusion blinds to reduce natural light
  • Avoid reflective blinds, wall and table surfaces
  • Dark table finishes and warmer wood grains are preferable.
  • Avoid glass tables and walls or etch glass to reduce glare.
  • 20-60% reflectance on tables and chairs.
  • 40-60% reflectance on walls.
  • Avoid small, intricate graphic patterns.
  • Logos should have dull, non-reflective surfaces.

Reference: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/360028862512-Lighting-Concepts

Change your name

  1. Click “Participants” in the control bar at the bottom.
  2. Hover over your name and click “Rename.”
  3. Enter your name and click “Rename.”

Change the view layout

Active speaker (Speaker view) is the default video layout. It will switch the large video window between who is speaking.
Click the view switch button in the upper right corner of your Zoom window to change the layout.
With the video gallery, you will see multiple participants at a time.  There is an arrow to scroll through the remaining participants.

Reference: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362323-How-Do-I-Change-The-Video-Layout-

Check audio

  • Option 1
    Check the settings through the test site, https://zoom.us/test.
  • Option 2
    1. Open your Zoom client
    2. Click Settings (the gear icon on the upper right or the menu — zoom.us -> Preferences)
    3. Select “Audio”
    4. Click “Test Speaker”
    5. Click “Test Mic”

Reference: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362283-Testing-computer-or-device-audio

Check video

The ideal camera position is eye level, which provides the most natural orientation for face-to-face collaboration.

  • Option 1
    Check the settings through the test site, https://zoom.us/test.
  • Option 2
    1. Open your Zoom client
    2. Click Settings (the gear icon on the upper right or the menu — zoom.us -> Preferences)
    3. Select “Video”

Reference: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362313-How-Do-I-Test-My-Video-

Enable/disable sound and video

The control buttons appear at the bottom of your screen if you’re not currently screen sharing.

Reference: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/200941109-Attendee-Controls-in-a-Meeting

Enable Do Not Disturb mode

Windows

  • Right click on the notification icon on the taskbar.
  • Select Focus assist and set it to ‘Alarms only’

Mac

  • Hold down the ‘option’ key and click the notification center icon. You will see the icon grey out, and then you’re in Do Not Disturb mode.

Android

  • Swipe down to show your notifications and tap an icon that looks like this in the row at the top:

iOS

  • Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to launch Control Center.
  • Tap the Do Not Disturb button (It looks like a crescent moon)

Chromebook

  • Click the notifications tray to show your most recent notifications
  • Click the Do Not Disturb icon at the bottom of the notifications panel

Fix audio. I can't hear anything!

Check your audio settings by clicking on the ^ next to the microphone icon in the bottom left corner of the Zoom window. If you can play audio on your computer (this is the recommended option), select Join Audio by Computer.

Pin video

If you want to make somebody visible all the time, you need to pin the person’s screen. Otherwise, you see an active speaker and random audience.
Please note that if you record locally to your computer, It will only record the pinned video.

  1. On your screen, find the person.
  2. Hover over the person’s video and click …
  3. From the menu, choose Pin Video.

Reference: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362743-Pin-a-Video

Save in-meeting chat

You can save in-meeting chat to your computer. If you save the chat locally to your computer, it will save any chats that you can see — those sent directly to you and those sent to everyone in the meeting or webinar.

  1. Click on Chat.
  2. At the bottom of the chat window, Click on Save Chat.
  3. This will save your chat to your local recording location. The default is your Documents folder > Zoom > Folder with meeting name, date and time.

Reference: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/115004792763-Saving-In-Meeting-Chat

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