Beginning April 19, you can join us in live celebrations via Zoom video conferencing!
On Wednesday, April 15, we will have a trial run we’re calling “Morning Focus.”
We’ll see how everything works and answer questions by phone as well as the Internet in order to get you onboard, no matter how lacking you are in computer skills. Our mutual friend Bill Mettler will be the host—he knows all about this stuff!
Please try it out!
Millions of folks all over the world use this simple and easy way to hold meetings online.
Here is how simple it is: Bill will send you a link in your email. Click on the link and it takes you to the Zoom meeting. It asks if you want to be on camera. Assuming your computer has a webcam, you click yes (or no), and there you are, visible on your monitor with all the other people who came to the meeting, each in their own little frame—you immediately get to see and hear everybody! What could be simpler? (If you have no webcam you can still participate by selecting voice-only.)
Why We Decided to Try Zoom
For some time, there has been a conversation among members of the celebration team (Dave Perkins, Rosalind Cauffman, Deva Troy and myself) and others about how to conduct communications within the Pebble community while we all “shelter in place.”
Initially, the celebration team was caught unprepared by the abrupt closing of our meeting space, which began on March 15. The first concern was to keep communications flowing so that precious members of our community didn’t feel abandoned. We on the celebration team are not computer/Internet experts, so we opted to take what, to us, seemed the simplest way to keep in touch, which was email.
Learning as we went, we created the March 22 and subsequent celebrations by using links to songs, etc. bundled in an email and sent to Pebble’s email list. But they were only one-way communication, with no congregation participation. Next, we began producing the “Daily Message,” a shorter email bundle of song links and video talks. Rosalind and I have alternated sending these out every weekday. (Dave lacked the software and Deva was too busy to help.)
While we were trying to get traction on the email productions, we were frequently urged to switch to Zoom because of its interactive nature. People could watch and participate in real time. I held back because I know some people who would vehemently oppose more technology and I didn’t want them to be left behind. Finally, I’ve been convinced that Zoom is so elementary that no one need be left behind.
Zoom was designed for business meetings, that sort of thing. Whether the community will like it for celebrations is still an open question. But I certainly support giving it a chance, and hope you do too.
In loving community,
Rev. Larry Hall
Celebration Coordinator
