Public Participation via Zoom, etc

In follow up to the thread on public participation in a hybrid model I have a few questions:

Are there official guidelines to support navigating public participation over an online meeting?

For anyone who is allowing public participation which is not in the form of an email- does anyone allow community members to call in without activating their camera?

For those allowing in person with a limited number of attendees have you had issues with more community members wanting to attend than a cap you have set? And if so do you rotate them into the building. (IE A waiting room?)

Does anyone have any suggestions for how to diplomatically communicate to the community a change in how we navigate public participation? (Which is why I am hoping to find supporting documentation which might require community members to turn their cameras on.) In our current format and due to a few emotionally charged issues our call-ins have become like a radio show with callers behaving like prosecuting attorneys.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions and recommendations.

We utilize the Zoom "Webinar" feature. This allows us to start a session in Exec, in Zoom it's called Practice Mode. All Board members, admin, and legal are invited as Participants. We all use video. When it's time to move to public session, we "start" the webinar, which allows the public to join as "Attendees". We allow attendees to post to Q&A, we disable Chat for Attendees, and during the portions dedicated for public comment I remind the attendees to type their name, address and question in Q&A. We will read questions aloud, and answer them. After all questions are answered, or a reasonable time has passed, we move on and discontinue Q&A. I would strongly advise against allowing the public to have their cameras on - you never know what you're going to see. If you run as a webinar the problem you're describing goes away.

Replies

Bob McCann November 10, 2020 at 1:54pm

When we were all virtual, we kept the public comment section, just like the in person set up. We asked the public to submit their question/comment in advance, via email or in the "chat" section. Our District Clerk has full control over muting people, (Google meet). I simply remind people that we do not solicit random comments during the meeting. It has been our long standing practice to not answer someone who has a question/comment before the BOE, unless it is egregious. I generally respond with, a "thank you" and a "we will get back to you". This eliminates any back and forth emotions rising scenarios.
Edward Langone November 7, 2020 at 10:17pm

We utilize the Zoom "Webinar" feature. This allows us to start a session in Exec, in Zoom it's called Practice Mode. All Board members, admin, and legal are invited as Participants. We all use video. When it's time to move to public session, we "start" the webinar, which allows the public to join as "Attendees". We allow attendees to post to Q&A, we disable Chat for Attendees, and during the portions dedicated for public comment I remind the attendees to type their name, address and question in Q&A. We will read questions aloud, and answer them. After all questions are answered, or a reasonable time has passed, we move on and discontinue Q&A. I would strongly advise against allowing the public to have their cameras on - you never know what you're going to see. If you run as a webinar the problem you're describing goes away.

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