The Challenges Of Online Meetings

Challenges Of All Meetings
First I'll give you the bad news, then the good news. Some of the challenges of online meetings are the same as those of in person meetings.

1 Somebody who said he would give a speech is too busy doing something else. (One rule is that they must check in early. A second is to tell you what meeting conflicts they have. If it sounds legitimate or important or unavaildable you can explain to the audience: John is on a flight from overseas and if he cannot call us that means his flight has been delayed. The third is to have a plan b. Find a substitute speaker.)

2 After all the efforts of the organizers, the numbers of audience members attending are disappointing. Why? Do you need more publicity? Better publicity? Or earlier publicity?

3 Some people arrive late at the meeting. Others leave early.
To take account of those who leave early, repeat or record early information for them. Get information from them before they leave. Ask them to leave contact details. Take a group photo.

Online meetings have their own challenges.

Problem - Sound
1 Sound quality can be erratic.
We started with Learncool. We tried Skype. We went back to Zoom. We wanted to know whether the problem was our end of the other end.

Eventually, by process of elinination, we discovered the solution to the problem and therefore the cause of the problem. When we switched off everybody else's sound to better hear the main speaker, the quality of the sound improved.

Meeting Program
Our second meeting was technically an improvement on the first. We had loaded up the program of the meeting onto the website.

Famous Quotations
I spent several hours creating the slides on Powerpoint to share.  My themes were study and work.  I had twenty quotations on these two topics. I found the quotations in two books I wrote, Quick Quotations, and Who Said What When.

The second of my books on quotations gave me the dates the person quoted lived and died. I went back to Wikipedia for portraits.

Feedback On What Was Good
The meeting was scheduled to end at 9 pm. But we had started late because of sound problems.

Janet said she enjoyed the fact that the topics were all on the same theme. She also enjoyed the language evaluation.

Shishir said he enjoyed the personal stories during the speechcraft, to illustrate the points.

Suggestions For Improvement
Add speeches and evaluations.

Do more publicity - such as a video. This can be made from recordings of the meeting.

By the end of the meeting we had fewer, so it was a pity we did not take a group photo at the beginning.

Fun Photos
However, we had great photos with stuffed toys. That was an idea I had copied from Singapore Online Toastmasters of which I am a member.

Meetings you can join:
Singapore Online Friday evening 9-12 midnight Singapore time
Harrovians Mondays 7-9 pm evening UK time
Braddell Heights Advanced  Wednesdays 7-9 pm Singapore time

These meetings are in English. Other clubs are in French, Spanish, Mandarin, bilingual English and Malay, Tamil and other languages.

Useful Websites
Toastmasters International Find A Club
https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, trainer of speakers.  More on sound qulity in the next post. Please share links to useful posts.

Your Online Meetings And Speech Contests - Choices and challenges

You can create online meeting through GoTo Meetings, Skype and Zoom, or mobile phone share, google or facebook.

Zoom may have a time limit. If you pay for premium service you get more time.

The person creating the meeting chooses the platform.

First, when do you log on? Log on in advance, so you can be ready, hair combed, room tidy, meal finished.

How do you log on?
 I was sent the link on whatsApp.
It was quick to log on by clicking on the link.I logged on using my mobile and found good sound.

Turn your mobile to landscape (horizontal).

But you then have to look at the mobile constantly for your face to appear to others.

It is small. So if you are at home or in the office you might decide to log onto zoo or whoever on a larger laptop connected to a screen. If you look at the screen on one side of your mobile or laptop you might appear on the group to be looking sideways.

On Your Bigger Computer Screen
I logged on using my computer. I then had the pictures of the other participants on my screen, but the sound still coming out of my mobile phone.

Why have your mobile phone on at all? Using both can be useful if you want to hold up a picture on your phone and show it to those on the screen.

SOUND
Listening

Speaking
To unmute. You must see the unmute symbol. Move your mouse down the laptop or computer screen. See the mute and unmute symbol on the far lower left.

Distractions
If you walk with a mobile down a street you might create sound distractions - such as planes overhead. At home sounds can come from children and dogs.

Background Noise
Close the door of the room where you are working to shut out the noises and interruptions of movemnt of  others in your family or office.

SIGHT
Spectacles
Light reflection. Remove your glasses. Sit close so you don't need them. O remove them when speaking. turn off picture when you are not wanting to show your face, by covering the laptop camera.

Speaking
You may need to watch the clock. Or watch the timer.

Background Visual
How to create a lovely background. Do you want to show your country. (Not if you travel and leave your home empty, for security reasons.)

Green screen
Choose the zoom photo from the choice offered.

Alternatively, click on plus to add your own photo eg of your city. or a wiki picture.

I am a member of Singapore Online Toastmasters.
In Singapore, with the advent of coronavirus worldwide, we have been allowed to take physical meetings online whilst this situation continues.

More information from
Go To Meeting
https://www.gotomeeting.com/en-sg
Skype
https://www.skype.com/en/free-conference-call/
zoom.com
https://www.zoom.us/signin
Google hangouts
https://gsuite.google.com/intl/en_

Toastmasters International find a club
https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club
https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/11/21173608/zoom-video-conference-how-to-virtual-background-greenscreen?

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

How To Design Travel Or Memoir Book Covers, CreateTitles & Write Foreword On The Phone

Problem
I am always travelling and don't have time to meet everybody. My friend calls me for advice on publishing her book on club history - the year when she was president. I previously helped her design the cover and layout for her book of self -published poems. She wanted me to write a Foreword. However, I didn't have time to meet.

Answer
MEETING TIME
Luckily, she didn't have time to meet, either. So I suggested: "I could give you advice by Skype or phone at a later date."

MEETING ON THE PHONE
She replied, "Why not now? It'll only take ten minutes!"

In reality that meant about half an hour on the phone. That was a lot better than meeting 'just for half an hour', which last time took five hours!

WRITING A FOREWORD
So I started giving her advice on the phone. Last time I wrote a foreword, I thought it would be difficult. In reality, it's easy. You just write like you talk. Give your comments. Say them aloud. Type it out. Read it back and correct it.

TYPING UP NOTES
I thought: It's no good my taking notes. I'll lose the notes, forget. I'll be busy packing for a trip. Or unpacking from a trip. By the time I find the notes, I won't be able to read my writing and won't remember enough to reconstruct the sentences. It'll never get done. I'll type it up now, in an email, and send it to her straight away.

TYPING AS YOU TALK
I said, "I want to type it now as we speak, and send it to you. I'll type it out, correct it - and send it to you - later.""

"No," she protested. "I'll type it as you speak."

That was a great offer, saved me all the time and anxiety. I could think and speak without having to type.

So I conceded, "All right, I'll tell you what I think. You say if it's all right."

She read me the contents list of the book. I made comments such as: You cover a lot of ground. That would be useful to everybody.

She typed it up in the third person:
"Angela said: 'This book covers a lot of ground. That would be useful to everybody.  ...' "

SPELLING CHECK
One of the things I was concerned about was that the words I said would appear correctly spelled. I was glad to receive an email from her almost immediately, thanking me and adding the write-up of my words for me to check.

Learned and Learnt
I notice Grammarly has underlined spelled in red. I looked up 'learnt' and 'learned' and learned that you could spell it both ways. Learned ending in ed is increasingly common.

The only thing wrong with the spelling ending in ed, is that people in Asia read what they see and pronounce the word learn - Ed.

However, I was happy with the foreword. So far, so good.

COVER DESIGN
Next, we discussed the cover. She wanted one of her two books to have a plain cover with just the title.

I was not happy with that. Covers sell. Pictures sell.

PRINT SIZE
However, I was able to give her a suggestion about the print size. I had discovered that when you look for a book on line, it often appears with other books which have similar titles. Your book is shown postage stamp size alongside others. If your book has a tiny font, when reduced from A5 to postage size, the title is too small to read. Even if you can just about make it out, it doesn't have the impact of a short title.

SHORT TITLES HAVE IMPACT. 
SHORT TITLES HAVE IMPACT.
SHORT TITLES HAVE IMPACT.
Short titles have impact.
Short titles have impact.
Short titles have impact.
How to create short titles.
How to create short titles.
How to create short titles.
How to create short titles.
HOW TO CHOOSE FONTS.
HOW TO CHOOSE FONTS.
Why you should avoid long titles which can be hard to read and take longer to type.

TEN TIMES 

I WAS NEARLY MURDERED IN MEXICO!

WHAT ABOUT THE WORDING OF THE TITLE?
People in marketing and copyright advise you to use tricks to improve the title:

USE NUMBERS
1 For example: The seven habits of highly effective poeple. Or should it be: Seven Habits ... Save three letters by dropping the? Seven Greek Islands. The Top Ten Beaches.

ASK OR ANSWER QUESTIONS
2 How to .... (How to write books which sell.) How to find a houseboat.

EMOTIONS
3 They laughed when I sat down to play. The Hammock House Which Makes Me Happy.

SURPRISES, NEGATIVES & HUMOUR
4 How not to write a novel. Ten holidays from hell to avoid - for people in wheelchairs.

RESEARCH
I suggested: Do a search of your subject and title. See how length of a title appears when the book is small.

SHORTEN TITLES
Let's suppose your title is three words: Learn with love. You could have it as one line.  Increase the size until it runs onto two lines.

I was thinking about this as I recently put together a slide show in Keynote (Apple system) and Powerpoint (using both to be shown on any computer in a presentation). The text box was very narrow. I kept losing one word to the line below or losing the entire second line until I expanded the text box. As a result of that experience, I was reminded to advise:

To shorten the title often makes the title more succinct. For example, Learn with love could be changed to Love To Learn. That save two characters. Or shorten to Love Learning. That's alliterative.

FIRST WORD AND WORD SEARCH
But which word do you want to come first, love or learning? Try search love learning and learn to love and find how often you get books on learning and how often you get books on loving. You might need to put the word Learning first.

ALPHABETICAL ORDER
You might find that you want a title starting with a letter earlier in the alphabet to ensure that if books are listed alphabetically, yours appears first. Look at the best selling books and see what kind of title is most effective.

AVOID CONFUSION
You might want to avoid having the same title as a best selling book. When people search for your book they cannot find it They end up buying somebody else's book instead.

Even if my ideas did not apply to her book and title, she had made two gains:
1 She knew how to research rival books to spot what was successful and which she liked when she saw a cover in print.
2 She had a chance to talk through her ideas and get feedback and re-think her own decisions.

SUCCESSFUL PHONE CONFERENCING
We did so much - just on the phone.  So don't worry about not being able to meet when travelling. You don't need to worry about expensive phone calls or awkward to arrange conference calls with delayed sound. You can accomplish a lot just by dictating down the phone to each other.

Finish the job in five minutes. Type as you go and send the email for correction. If you could record on a smart phone using Siri, or voice recognition, it might be even better.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Author of about 20 books. How many? I have so many on the go, I lose track.
Please share links to your favourite posts.

Books by Angela Lansbury
How to be the best man. (Ward Lock / Cassell.)
Wedding Speeches and Toasts.(Ward Lock / Cassell.)
Unforgettable British Weekends.
Poetry Workshop Workbook.
The Tailor and the Spy. (Lulu.)
Larry The Talking Labrador. (Lulu.)
Writing Poetry for fun.

Update

Who Said What When

Online Clubs and Committees

Problem
How do you hold a committee meeting when VIP members are overseas on business, holiday or both?

Answer
Use a Skype call. 

Story
I was speaking on the phone to Indra, Treasurer of Harrovian Speakers' Club, about recent contests and contests I shall be missing when travelling and my hope of joining an online Club. He told me that Harrovian Speakers in the UK held a committee meeting in London, at the home of Biju, joined by the VPE (Vice President of Education) Sushil who was in Mubai, India.

I was surprised that it was possible to meet at a mutually convenient time. When you hold a meeting at somebody's house, such as a committee meeting, it is easier to be flexible about the meeting start and end times as you don't have to wait for a caretaker or keyholder to arrive with a key and give you access to a meeting room, and to set up, nor to pack up early in order for the caretaker to lock the room and lock the building.

The committee meeting was a a jovial affair, with members jokingly pretending to offer food to Sushil, saying, 'Would you like a piece of fruit?' and, 'Would you like a biscuit!'

Tip
1 Check time zones in advance.
2 Send the agenda by email so you don't have to hold it up to the iPad or screen for the distant member to read.

Author
Angela Lansbury, CC (Competent Communicator), ACG (Advanced Communicator Gold), member of HOD and Harrovians, London.
Read my blogs on travel, my blogs on speeches, and blogs on other subjects on blogger.com
See profiles and posts on Facebook, LinkedIn, Titter (@AngelaTheAuthor) Instagram, YouTube. 

Please like my pages, follow me and share my posts.

A zoom meeting online.

Update in 2023

Or use Zoom. Or Facebook live. Set to private.

The online club, Singapore International Dynamic, is one of several clubs which meet exclusively online, very conveneient for those who travel a lot.

To find a speakers' club, go to toastmasters international, find a club.

https://www.toastmasters.org/Find-a-Club/

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Drinking and Mobile Phones, Loss

A friend of mine went out with his friend who bought rounds of drinks. On his way home my friend lost his mobile phone.

Moral. Keep it in zip pocket. Report loss on Skype. Keep taxi receipt to call taxi company.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

What to do with plants when you are away

What do you do with house plants when you're away? I recall regular conversations with the son.
I say, "Hello, darling. Is everything OK?"
"Yes. Sort of."
Me (increasingly anxious), "What's the problem?"
Him: "I don't want to worry you."
"I'm already worried. If you need help, I want to know. What's your problem? Have you hurt yourself."
"It's not me, Mum. It's just - you know you had an orchid?"
"I have several?"
"Well you have one less."
"Fewer. An orchid has died? Did you water it?"
"Maybe. I don't know. I don't think so. Was I supposed to water it? I watered the others."
"Yes. You are supposed to water them all. How would you like it if everybody in the room got a glass of water and you were left out! Plants are very easily satisfied. They do like coffee and tea but you can get away with giving them nothing more expensive and time consuming than water. I'll leave them in the sink again, next time."
"But that gets in the way if I want to fill the kettle."

I just read a solution to this problem. If you are going away for a week, or less time, such as a long weekend, you can use ice.

Ice? Doesn't the ice damage the plant? Apparently not.

What's the advantage?
1The ice melts slowly. Surely not - most ice melts in 24 hours? Maybe they don't need the water to be added slowly over the whole week, just not all at once filling the air holes in the soil and drowning the roots.

2 The other main advantage is that you have exact portion control. Three cubes is about a quarter of a cup, preventing you from over-watering so the roots become water-logged and rot - and you don't get dirty water running out over the nearby sofa under the windowsill nor the sink draining board onto your cups and saucers and plates.

I haven't tried this yet. When I first read it I thought it must be a spoof. But the whole of the site is most educational. This website solved two more problems for me:

What are the roots growing over the side of the pot and should I cut them off?
I tried cutting them off and replanting in other pots but they never grew new plants. They are called air roots.

Re-potting should take place every two years. Goodness - I rarely do that.

Finally, the plant that looks as if it's dying and revives. I had eventually from inertia kept apparently dead plants, watered them intermittently, then found flowers. I assumed that the plants flowered twice a year. Or every year at the same time. But maybe they just have two bursts after a rest, like some of my roses, taking a time to grow new buds into flowers which then appear to burst suddenly over 24 hours, when actually the buds have been growing for weeks.

However, the website added a new thought. Plants hibernate. They rest. So even if you come back from holiday to a very woebegone plant it has not necessarily gone. Wait for the new flowers to spring.

What to do?
1 Send timed emails to the family: Sunday is plant watering day. Water my plants today.
2 Ask family to send you pictures of your plants every weekend.
3 If family won't water plants, ask them to allow neighbours to come in and water the plants.
4 If you really think it helps, tell the family it's an excuse to get the neighbours in for coffee because they are lonely. Tell the neighbours the truth, that you can't trust your family to water the plants. If you are lucky, they will all enjoy this multi-level bluff.
5 If the family are not looking after the plants, get the neighbours to water the plants whilst checking your post for parking tickets and other must act now urgent mail. (Urgent mail can be photographed or even shown to you on Skype.
6 Set up plants around the computer so when you do a Skype call you can check on your plants.
Happy holidays to you and your plants.

http://www.justaddiceorchids.com/Just-Add-Ice-Orchid-Blog/bid/81354/Don-t-Throw-Out-Your-Orchid-It-s-Not-Dead

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
Author of How To Get Out of The Mess You Are In and several other books.  Watch me on YouTube talking about restaurant etiquette and cutlery, spelling, grammar, all sorts of useful information. If you think you are likely to meet me at a writers' conference or Toastmasters International blue or contest, ask me to bring along my books to show you. If you decide to buy one, I can sign it for you and write a rhyming couplet about your name or hobbies, or dedicate it to a member of your family or a friend for you to present to them as a gift.