In a recent post I wrote about my home telephone line and how much I needed it, but only when it wasn’t working properly. Since that time, the phone has been working well and of course, I don’t really need it much.
Today I participated via teleconference in a board meeting of a non-profit organization based in a city two hours from where I live. I am a new board member and today was the first board meeting that I could attend was held. I might have attended the meeting in person if I had chosen to rearrange my schedule (pretty much impossible!) but I was thankful to learn that a teleconference meeting number and passcode was provided for those who could not be there in person.
Well, it seems that though the organization had the meeting numbers set up, a “good” teleconference telephone had not been purchased. I was disturbed that (pure conjecture but I’m pretty sure about this) that a regular telephone with regular speaker phone capability was in use. I called into the meeting via Skype and I could barely hear anyone despite having my speaker volume set at the highest level.
While discussing the newly formed board member attendance policy, someone (I couldn’t hear very well) said, “We prefer to have everyone meet here in person so that we can see each other, face to face.” Hmnnnn…videoconference anyone?
If I hadn’t resigned today, I might have volunteered to perform a financial analysis of the costs of reimbursing board members for travel around the state, compared with the cost of purchasing some conference room equipment. At any rate, my parting suggestion was that the board members consider purchasing new equipment. Perhaps a new committee will be formed to review available technology regularly against the organization’s growing needs for state-wide communications. Sounds like a good project for someone!
What has been your Technolo-gee business experiences with (or without) teleconferences and videoconferences? Let share ideas!
Two Talk LPS Learning, Language & IT Services 