Freemasons everywhere have been using Zoom and other video conference software in place of regular Lodge meetings and events. A lot.
Let’s face it, prior to the pandemic, about the last thing Freemasonry could be thought to be was tech savvy. Well, what a difference a few months of Covid makes.
So let’s chat about it.
Now that we all have probably way too much experience with Zoom:
What makes a great Masonic Zoom meeting?
What is the ideal length?
Are they better with a tight structure, or a loose structure?
Like every Thursday, we will have a Live Open Thread for those with a paid subscription to Emeth today. It’ll open at 8:00AM Pacific, and run until 6:00PM. Please watch for the email opening the thread right at 8:00.
I Have worked remotely, via Teams now for almost 9 years. There is nothing I want to do less than sit on another virtual call. while it was fine to accomplish necessary business I get little joy other than seeing my fellows and checking on their needs. . We wrote a white paper for our grand lodge on Virtual Meetings. Can send it to you.
I feel in the future, zoom is a good way to hold quick impromptu meetings of brothers to decide something outside of official lodge business. But as Robert said, I definitely am pretty zoomed out. Working from home has been a blessing for me, considering my commute to and from work is about 5 hours, but it does leave me a bit mentally drained to sit in zoom meetings all day.
I also refuse to put on a suit and tie to sit in front of my computer, I find that silly. I don't even bother to get dressed for work, shorts and a t-shirt is just fine. Showers optional if I'm not going anywhere.
Zoom meetings are really good for the outside of Lodge, committee items. They can be less formal and it also makes scheduling them a lot easier as they become location independent and timing is much more flexible.
That being said I think they are also useful for actual Stated Communications - open the Zoom call after the ritual opening and close it before you do the ritual closing. You would need to verify members coming in, but it would give a chance for your older members and those that live beyond a reasonable drive to attend the business and educational portions of a meeting. Please take note, NO ritual work would be done while the Zoom call is open.
I think the future of Zoom/Skype open to however you can incorporate into your regular meeting. From including brothers from afar, to brothers that may be hospitalized, to having guest speakers that can give educational presentations. I think Zoom has actually saved Freemasonry. At first it was great just to see and speak with the other brothers. The formal meetings were a little weird at first, but I set the dress code as business casual, asking the brothers to wear a shirt with a collar. Living in AZ and being the Master of my lodge in WA, it was the only way I could participate. I’m very thankful for the technology.
The need to use Zoom was great over the past year. The platform is amazing and has allowed me to attend educational events all over the country.
The idea that we could have a guest speaker at our Stated meeting from somewhere else on earth makes this a concept to keep.
Formal or casual should depend on the event. I attended the installation of officers for Rainbow via Zoom. Made sure I had a shirt and tie on. A special communication, why not casual. Committee or Lodge Officers meeting, causal sounds like the right move.
I say keep them short. No more than an hour unless reasons known beforehand will take it beyond.
And its been great reconnecting with Brothers that moved.
Before Zoom got big, the York Rite, and later the Long-Range Planning Committee, was using SoCoCo. I got used to how it worked, and actually liked it. We even used SoCoCo for a couple of Temple Board meetings in Centralia. I first got a try on Zoom when the LRP committee switched to it a couple of years ago, well before the shutdown. It was much simpler, and also much cheaper. Now I don't know anyone who's using SoCoCo anymore.
Before the Pandemic, I actually thought the Teleconference idea was pretty good. But that's because I was only using it a couple times a month. But since the shutdown, it's turned the other way around. Now I think I'm NOT on zoom a couple times a month!
And that's where the problem lies. Now that we don't have to travel hours to attend a meeting in person, and we can now attend without traveling at all, there's more opportunity to attend events and meetings you normally wouldn't have been able to attend. But the dark side of that is the additional meetings you're expected to attend. Now because of the availability, there are groups, organizations and companies that now can hold meeting after meeting for things they wouldn't have tried to schedule meetings for. This has certainly contributed to the Zoom burnout. I'm actually busier now than I was before the pandemic, and it's not just Freemasonry!
My fear is that even when our society returns to doing things in-person, that we'll still be trying to do a ton of teleconferencing in between the in-person events and meetings. I hope we can find a nice balance over the next couple of years as the pandemic subsides. As stated in the above paragraph, it can be easy to make new bad habits with this updated technology.
As Lodges start to reopen, I am hearing that people want to keep Zoom available for Lodge meetings. That's a great idea for brothers who are unable or physically restricted from attending in person. Let me share some thoughts. I was on a recent Zoom where there was one laptop aimed on the East. Other people speaking could not be heard or seen, until someone decided to twist the camera to the direction of the speaker, which gave me vertigo and I still could not hear. (Full Disclosure: I have a hearing disability, so that adds to it) You can do an expensive set-up with multiple cameras and a switcher along with a sophisticated sound system that gets tied to your Internet router. Or you can put laptops on the East, West, South and North. The East laptop will be the administrator. West and South for the Wardens and anybody in person must go to the North and speak into that laptop. Or you can do an expensive six/seven camera setup with camera operators and wireless microphones everyone must use and be mixed into an audio board that feeds into the router which ties up money and people. I choose the Easy button.
I want to add my two cents, although many have already touched on it. I feel we need to keep Zoom as we open because there are many Brothers who for whatever reason, can not physically attend Lodge.
Being able to have Brothers who have moved but are still members or pluraled up because a Father or Grandfather were members at that Lodge have been attending our Zoom meetings. For those and many other reasons, I feel it is important to remember them and make use of Zoom for educational purposes.
Zoom portion could be informal, relaxed and still be worthy of the time spent. Focus should be on what is being delivered, not if the Brothers are clothed like those in actual attendance at Lodge.
what should NEVER be included?? previously recorded message unless they can be delivered to the audience CLEARLY!! Nothing is worse than having to try & concentrate of what is a poor recording (delivered monotonal) where is fades in and out....either dfeliver it yourself or find a better way to deliver it, our educational deliveries should have at least a spark of interest from the educator otherwise those who you are trying to educate lose interest very fast!!
Ideal length for a Zoom meeting is 60-90 minutes. We should be able to deliver upon a excellent educational program in a hour or less leaving us 30 minutes to discuss.....just my humble opinions
I Have worked remotely, via Teams now for almost 9 years. There is nothing I want to do less than sit on another virtual call. while it was fine to accomplish necessary business I get little joy other than seeing my fellows and checking on their needs. . We wrote a white paper for our grand lodge on Virtual Meetings. Can send it to you.
I feel in the future, zoom is a good way to hold quick impromptu meetings of brothers to decide something outside of official lodge business. But as Robert said, I definitely am pretty zoomed out. Working from home has been a blessing for me, considering my commute to and from work is about 5 hours, but it does leave me a bit mentally drained to sit in zoom meetings all day.
I also refuse to put on a suit and tie to sit in front of my computer, I find that silly. I don't even bother to get dressed for work, shorts and a t-shirt is just fine. Showers optional if I'm not going anywhere.
Zoom meetings are really good for the outside of Lodge, committee items. They can be less formal and it also makes scheduling them a lot easier as they become location independent and timing is much more flexible.
That being said I think they are also useful for actual Stated Communications - open the Zoom call after the ritual opening and close it before you do the ritual closing. You would need to verify members coming in, but it would give a chance for your older members and those that live beyond a reasonable drive to attend the business and educational portions of a meeting. Please take note, NO ritual work would be done while the Zoom call is open.
I think the future of Zoom/Skype open to however you can incorporate into your regular meeting. From including brothers from afar, to brothers that may be hospitalized, to having guest speakers that can give educational presentations. I think Zoom has actually saved Freemasonry. At first it was great just to see and speak with the other brothers. The formal meetings were a little weird at first, but I set the dress code as business casual, asking the brothers to wear a shirt with a collar. Living in AZ and being the Master of my lodge in WA, it was the only way I could participate. I’m very thankful for the technology.
The need to use Zoom was great over the past year. The platform is amazing and has allowed me to attend educational events all over the country.
The idea that we could have a guest speaker at our Stated meeting from somewhere else on earth makes this a concept to keep.
Formal or casual should depend on the event. I attended the installation of officers for Rainbow via Zoom. Made sure I had a shirt and tie on. A special communication, why not casual. Committee or Lodge Officers meeting, causal sounds like the right move.
I say keep them short. No more than an hour unless reasons known beforehand will take it beyond.
And its been great reconnecting with Brothers that moved.
Ah, yes. Teleconferencing.
Before Zoom got big, the York Rite, and later the Long-Range Planning Committee, was using SoCoCo. I got used to how it worked, and actually liked it. We even used SoCoCo for a couple of Temple Board meetings in Centralia. I first got a try on Zoom when the LRP committee switched to it a couple of years ago, well before the shutdown. It was much simpler, and also much cheaper. Now I don't know anyone who's using SoCoCo anymore.
Before the Pandemic, I actually thought the Teleconference idea was pretty good. But that's because I was only using it a couple times a month. But since the shutdown, it's turned the other way around. Now I think I'm NOT on zoom a couple times a month!
And that's where the problem lies. Now that we don't have to travel hours to attend a meeting in person, and we can now attend without traveling at all, there's more opportunity to attend events and meetings you normally wouldn't have been able to attend. But the dark side of that is the additional meetings you're expected to attend. Now because of the availability, there are groups, organizations and companies that now can hold meeting after meeting for things they wouldn't have tried to schedule meetings for. This has certainly contributed to the Zoom burnout. I'm actually busier now than I was before the pandemic, and it's not just Freemasonry!
My fear is that even when our society returns to doing things in-person, that we'll still be trying to do a ton of teleconferencing in between the in-person events and meetings. I hope we can find a nice balance over the next couple of years as the pandemic subsides. As stated in the above paragraph, it can be easy to make new bad habits with this updated technology.
As Lodges start to reopen, I am hearing that people want to keep Zoom available for Lodge meetings. That's a great idea for brothers who are unable or physically restricted from attending in person. Let me share some thoughts. I was on a recent Zoom where there was one laptop aimed on the East. Other people speaking could not be heard or seen, until someone decided to twist the camera to the direction of the speaker, which gave me vertigo and I still could not hear. (Full Disclosure: I have a hearing disability, so that adds to it) You can do an expensive set-up with multiple cameras and a switcher along with a sophisticated sound system that gets tied to your Internet router. Or you can put laptops on the East, West, South and North. The East laptop will be the administrator. West and South for the Wardens and anybody in person must go to the North and speak into that laptop. Or you can do an expensive six/seven camera setup with camera operators and wireless microphones everyone must use and be mixed into an audio board that feeds into the router which ties up money and people. I choose the Easy button.
I want to add my two cents, although many have already touched on it. I feel we need to keep Zoom as we open because there are many Brothers who for whatever reason, can not physically attend Lodge.
Being able to have Brothers who have moved but are still members or pluraled up because a Father or Grandfather were members at that Lodge have been attending our Zoom meetings. For those and many other reasons, I feel it is important to remember them and make use of Zoom for educational purposes.
Zoom portion could be informal, relaxed and still be worthy of the time spent. Focus should be on what is being delivered, not if the Brothers are clothed like those in actual attendance at Lodge.
what should NEVER be included?? previously recorded message unless they can be delivered to the audience CLEARLY!! Nothing is worse than having to try & concentrate of what is a poor recording (delivered monotonal) where is fades in and out....either dfeliver it yourself or find a better way to deliver it, our educational deliveries should have at least a spark of interest from the educator otherwise those who you are trying to educate lose interest very fast!!
Ideal length for a Zoom meeting is 60-90 minutes. We should be able to deliver upon a excellent educational program in a hour or less leaving us 30 minutes to discuss.....just my humble opinions