The COVID-19 pandemic has forced organizations to shift away from in-person meetings to virtual online alternatives. The Pandemic Fund was set up to assist locals to put in place an online engagement system that could be in place for the long term.
HEU recommends the use of the online meeting platform Zoom for your local meetings.
Zoom has exploded in popularity in recent months for the simple reason that it is easy to use and can accommodate large numbers of participants.
The first step for any local will be to create a local specific email account (for example through Gmail) that can be comfortably shared publicly and accessed by two or more people. It is important that the email address can be transferred, along with the member contacts it contains, to any subsequent executive members. All platforms that require an online account—like Zoom—should be limited to this local email address.
If you are responsible for hosting a local meeting and need some training to use Zoom, we’ll be offering these upcoming one and half-hour training sessions for local activists to access on a voluntary basis:
Level 1: Getting Started with Zoom Meetings for your local
What you’ll learn:
- Tips and tools to run a smooth meeting
- How to schedule your meeting and invite members
- How to meet your constitutional requirements in a virtual platform
Level 2: Take your online union meetings to the next level
What you’ll learn:
- Additional Zoom tools (such as registration and polling) to help run a smooth meeting
- Level-up your interaction during your meetings and build connection
- Bring in additional tools (Google docs) to add more participation