If you’re new to online video conferences, this post will tell you how to join a meeting. Then we provide some basic points of video conference etiquette to ensure an enjoyable conference experience for everybody.
Using Google Meet
Google Meet, the online video conference recommended by the NMRA, is a web application that runs in your web browser. That means that Google Meet doesn’t require that you download and run a specific application to join the meetings. All you need to do is ensure that you’re using a relatively current version of any of the following web browsers:
- Microsoft Edge
- Apple Safari
- Google Chrome
- Firefox
Joining the Meeting
The invitations for our monthly meetings always include a link for joining the meeting in Google Meet. Simply click the link to join the meeting. When you receive the invitation blog post via email, click the link to read the entire post; the meeting link will be in that post. (Check the Meetings archive for the latest meeting invitation blog post.)
When you join the meeting, you’ll likely get a prompt to allow Google Meet to access your microphone and camera. You need to allow this to happen the other meeting attendees won’t be able to hear or see you. This prompt will look something like this.
Google Meet Basics
Most of the features that you’ll use in Google Meet are available in a toolbar at the bottom of the window.
Here are the features, from left to right:
- Microphone control: click the microphone button to mute/unmute your microphone (the screenshot above shows a muted microphone). Click the little up-arrow to the left of the microphone to display microphone and speaker controls. You can use these controls to select between your available microphones and speakers, assuming you have more than one set available.
- Video control: click the video camera button to enable/disable your video camera. Click the little up-arrow to the left of the video camera to camera controls. You can use these controls to select between your available cameras, assuming that you have more than one available. This is also where you can select to blur your background for privacy reasons.
- Share button: Click this button to share your screen to show something to the other attendees.
- Reaction button: Click this button to select from a series of emoji symbols to express your reaction to whatever is being presented. For example, when someone shows an excellent model in Show and Tell, you might react with a heart or thumbs up.
- Close Caption button: Click this button to display live text of what people are saying on the call. The captions appear below the tiles of attendees and whatever is being presented.
- Raise hand button: When you want to say something, click this button to raise your hand. The meeting host will see this (along with the other attendees) and let you know when you can comment or ask your question without talking over anybody else.
- Menu button (three vertical dots): Click this to access a menu of other meeting controls. You probably won’t use this, but I was committed to cover all the buttons.
- Leave call: Click the little red handset button to leave this call.
- Chat: To the lower right corner is another set of buttons. The little dialog bubble button enables the chat window, where you can type in a question that all the attendees can see.
Video Conference Etiquette
Use the following guidelines to help everybody have a productive video conference.
Mute your Microphone
Audio feedback and background noise are the biggest problem of video conferences. Sometimes it’s feedback from an attendee’s speakers tuned up to rock-concert levels. Other times it’s the background noises of dogs barking or the spouse watching TV, sneaking into the conference audio from an attendee’s open microphone.
In general, if you’re not speaking, mute your microphone! In the lower left corner of the Zoom window are two buttons that turn on/off your microphone and video camera. The red slash across the microphone icon means you’re muted. Note that your microphone will automatically be muted when you join the meeting.
Raise your Hand
When you have a question, or something to contribute to the conversation, you can electronically raise your hand to let the meeting host know that you have something to say. The meeting host will wait for a good break, and acknowledge your request. Then you can un-mute your microphone, voice your question, observation, anecdote, whatever, and then mute your microphone again.
To raise your hand, click the Reactions button on the toolbar at the bottom of the conference window and select Raise Hand from the resulting menu. Note that this toolbar disappears when you’re not using your mouse, so you might have to move your mouse to reveal it.
Try Not to Talk Over Each Other
For remote attendees on the Zoom call, it’s difficult to pick up the presenter’s message when two other conversations are taking place in the background. Consequently, it’s polite for in-person meeting attendees to keep any side conversations quiet and brief.
Conserving your Bandwidth
If you don’t have a very good internet connection when you attend the meeting via the Zoom call, you may find that the audio quality is poor. If this is the case it will help to disable your video. As much as we’d like to see your smiling face on the call, it’s more important that you omit your video feed in favor of improved audio and presentation video from the main meeting.
Mute Everything for In-Person Connections
Some in-person attendees may prefer to bring a laptop/tablet/phone to connect to the meeting so the presentation video is directly in front of them. In this scenario, please mute your microphone and turn your speakers all the way down. This will help prevent the room microphone from picking up your device’s speakers, which inevitably leads to obnoxious feedback.
Other Questions or Suggestions?
If you have other Zoom-related questions or suggestion for other etiquette points to cover here, please visit the Officers page and send a message to the Webmaster.