Chances are you have been using Zoom for your online school council meetings or even to meet with family and friends during this pandemic. Whether you are new to videoconferencing or have been doing it for months now, there’s always room for making your virtual meetings smoother and more enjoyable.
If you haven’t done a virtual meeting yet via Zoom, it is always a good idea to test it out with a friend in order to get comfortable with setting up a meeting and running it.
When you first go live, take your time and allow a few minutes for people to join you. People sometimes need a few moments to tune in. I know I always forget to click on the connect to computer audio button. I always try to play some background music when starting my meeting to remove some of the awkwardness.
At the start of the meeting, introduce yourself and let viewers know they can post questions in the comments or chat. You might say something like, “Feel free to ask your questions, and we’ll get to them at the end.”
Set a co-host or moderator. Setting a co-host and/or moderator will allow someone else to help you manage the meeting, including screen sharing and pausing for chat comments and questions.
Remember to be conversational and relaxed. To the best of your ability, behave as you would at a normal school council meeting. You don’t want to sound stiff or scripted. People will respond better to your natural self.
Interact with attendees. At different times throughout the meeting, reintroduce yourself and welcome people who have just joined you.
Break the ice. Just as at in-person meetings, starting your meeting with a tongue-in-cheek or funny question can help get the conversation flowing. For ideas on virtual icebreakers visit our 5 Virtual Ice Breakers for Parent Council Meetings blog.
During your Q&A session, remember to repeat questions to your audience and don’t forget to mention who the question came from.
Ask everyone to mute themselves to cut down on background noise. Also, remember to set microphones to mute as a default when setting up your meeting.
With security concerns, make sure your meeting is password-protected so only invited participants can get in.
Don’t worry if something unexpected happens. If one of your kids walks in (there’s a lot of that happening these days), just roll with it. Remember that you’re broadcasting to other parents; they’ll understand! Chances are the same thing will happen to them.
Because people are remote, bump up your friendliness a notch to compensate for not being there in person.
Some parents attending the meeting might not want to be on camera. That’s OK! You can help them participate by suggesting that they turn off their cameras, if they want to.
The following are some keyboard shortcuts that allow you to navigate the Zoom settings without having to use your mouse.
Zoom shortcuts for Windows
- Ctrl+Alt+Shift: Move focus to Zoom’s meeting controls
- PageUp: View previous 25 video stream in gallery view
- PageDown: View next 25 video stream in gallery view
- Alt+F1: Switch to active speaker view in video meeting
- Alt+F2: Switch to gallery video view in video meeting
- Alt+V: Start/stop video
- Alt+A: Mute/unmute audio
- Alt+M: Mute/unmute audio for everyone except host
Note: For the meeting host only - Alt+S: Launch share screen window and stop screen share
Note: Will only work when meeting control toolbar has focus - Alt+Shift+S: Start/stop new screen share
Note: Will only work when meeting control toolbar has focus - Alt+Y: Raise/lower hand
Zoom shortcuts for Mac
- Command(⌘)+Shift+A: Mute/unmute audio
- Command(⌘)+Control+M: Mute audio for everyone except the host (only available to the host)
- Command(⌘)+Control+U: Unmute audio for everyone except host (only available to the host)
- Command(⌘)+Shift+V: Start/stop video
- Command(⌘)+Shift+S: Start/stop screen share
- Ctrl+P: View previous 25 participants in gallery view
- Ctrl+N: View next 25 participants in gallery view
- Option+Y: Raise hand/lower hand
- Command(⌘)+Shift+F: Enter or exit full screen
- Ctrl+Option+Command+H: Show/hide meeting controls
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