ZOOM BREAKOUT ROOMS

[M.J.]

9 hours ago, jwhess said:

a quiet 3-5 minutes before the opening of the meeting

Why?

[Intercore]

11 hours ago, jwhess said:

a quiet 3-5 minutes before the opening of the meeting

We do it too. We mute everyone and then play one or two Kingdom songs. It helps to prepare and concentrate yourself for the meeting.

[Eejay]

Zoom is weird, whatever we make of it. We are just trying to make the best of an unnatural form of association thrust upon us due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Not long ago and, for many of us, within memory, we would have had nothing at all like this. We would be likely trying to devise methods of meeting at distance within whatever legal constraints existed in our various locations.

 

For me, the whole process illustrates how much we have to learn about applying Christian principles under difficulty.

 

In one part of the world, we read about our brothers and sisters who are forced to share prison cells with random, tobacco-addicted criminals, and who endure these conditions at great personal cost including their physical health, undimmed in their faith, still endeavouring to share the good news with those they come in contact with. That is before we consider those who endure forced solitary confinement and sleep deprivation for no crime other than doing what we are able to do freely, albeit under the "Zoom regime".

 

On the other hand, we learn about those who are "forced" from the comfort of their homes to use video conferencing facilities for Bible education and association. Who are "compelled" to suffer the indignities of sharing a screen with some one they call a brother or sister, but who they feel they have "little in common with". Who want to limit their association to those they feel "comfortable" with. Who want to sit through Christian meetings with their cameras switched off so as to not be observed by "strangers" (do they leave their own view of others dark?).

 

I can't help wondering how such groups would get on "trading places"?

 

Be that as it may, I love the facility provided by video-conference. My preference is for random breakouts without permissions before and after meetings; some element of control to ensure guests are placed  in a room with those who invited them until comfortable otherwise; a duration on the room time to ensure at least 2 sessions after meetings where possible; a limit on numbers per room to avoid necessity for screen scrolling where devices differ; a main screen return for one minute silence prior to meetings. Remember, there is no compulsion to join rooms, you can leave the meeting or room at any time if you wish.

 

Some of the benefits I have experienced:

• I have now been in a breakout room with every member of the congregation who shares in this facility.
• I have got to know everyone who participates, better than prior, also on a very different level,  as I was relatively new to the congregation.
• The shared experience is a great "ice-breaker", and will likely provide a platform for closer association in the future.
• I have been able to interact with those a little shy, and learned how to draw them out tactfully to enjoy association with them.
• We have been able to discuss and share our "Covid challenges" with others on a regular basis.
• We share ministry experiences, whether interactions or innovative methods. Particularly with children who participate with their parents present.
• We get to know visitors, increasing awareness of the experiences of others, widening out in our love for others.
• Despite our rural location, we have been able to interact with  our fellow Christians in different locations and countries as they visit via Zoom. We have had visitors from all over UK; France; Germany, USA, Mexico, Peru to name a few. This would have been a rare event in normal circumstances.
• We have got to know and interact with the many in our congregation formally limited to telephone links for various reasons, who can now participate visually and actively in meetings and field service. Some of these are now putting face-to-voice with fellow Christians they formerly did not actually know despite being congregation members, (where such ones participate themselves as they feel "comfortable").
• Family members, not associating for years, have started attending the meetings regularly, on the road to spiritual recovery. Zoom facilitates their attendance without embarrassment. (In these situations, the optional privacy controls are a welcome function).

 

Jehovah is continuing to  "finish our training" even by means of Zoom! 1 Peter.5:9-10.

 

 

Edited August 21, 2021 by Eejay

[Qapla]

We associate freely before and after the meeting as a Congregation - no breakout rooms. No one "conducts" or "directs" ... we just have a free-flow of conversations that we all lovingly yield when someone is speaking. Has worked well since we started using Zoom for the meetings.

 

Before the meeting we have a "2 minute warning Splash Screen" with meeting Zoom reminders, like remembering to mute. When this screen appears most immediately stop talking and start muting ... by the time the Chairman starts the meeting we are all muted and ready for the meeting.

 

 

[AH173]

4 minutes ago, Qapla said:

we all lovingly yield when someone is speaking.

This is key.

 

Good video conference etiquette. 

[Sheep]

9 hours ago, Qapla said:

we all lovingly yield when someone is speaking.

 

8 hours ago, AH173 said:

This is key.

 

Good video conference etiquette. 

I wish we had that in our congregation. We'd be able to understand each other.

[Hinata]

20 hours ago, M.J. said:

Why?

 

Also, I recall the directions are to play the songs before and after the meeting, COVID or not. We did it in the physical kingdom halls, so we do it in the virtual KHs, too.

 

[Lee49]

3 hours ago, Sheep said:

I wish we had that in our congregation. We'd be able to understand each other.

Seems some of us always want to get our share of the conversation, it's hard to not step over others on zoom!

 

[M.J.]

1 hour ago, Hinata said:

 

Also, I recall the directions are to play the songs before and after the meeting, COVID or not. We did it in the physical kingdom halls, so we do it in the virtual KHs, too.

 

Yes, but that's not what @jwhesssaid, I was replying to him because he said they sit there for "a quiet 3 to 5 minutes before the opening of the meeting." He didn't say anything about songs. It would be weird to me to just sit in silence for 5 minutes. We never did this in the KH, so why do it over Zoom? Just one minute can seem really long and awkward if everyone is in a forced silence. In the KH, we would talk until the very last moment when the speaker walked up to the podium. 

 

[Hinata]

42 minutes ago, M.J. said:

Yes, but that's not what @jwhesssaid, I was replying to him because he said they sit there for "a quiet 3 to 5 minutes before the opening of the meeting." He didn't say anything about songs. It would be weird to me to just sit in silence for 5 minutes. We never did this in the KH, so why do it over Zoom? Just one minute can seem really long and awkward if everyone is in a forced silence. In the KH, we would talk until the very last moment when the speaker walked up to the podium. 

 

 

I see, I got confused with playing the song because @Intercore talked about playing the songs in regards to brother Hess.

 

In our zoom meeting, we actually do not play the songs. We actually really do mute the mics and make everyone quite for a minute before the meeting starts. I don't know the reason behind that since I am not an elder. But I guess, as for us, maybe the elders do not like the kingdom songs.

 

Edited August 22, 2021 by Hinata

[Qapla]

9 hours ago, M.J. said:

It would be weird to me to just sit in silence for 5 minutes. We never did this in the KH, so why do it over Zoom?

 

In out Hall, if someone (the chairman) went to the platform and asked us to locate our seats because the meeting would begin in a few minutes (could be 2,3,4,5) everyone would immediately stop talking and find their seats and just sit there waiting for the meeting to start ... yes, I am talking about when we were still meeting in person at the KH

 

As it is now, we have a 2 minute time when the splash screen is posted and talk ceases.

 

[Lee49]

In our Hall everyone would casually take their seats and the talking would go down to a whisper until the chairman started his introduction and the opening song started.

 

 

 

 

[coony77]

I like the breakout rooms. In our congregation, you can choose one of the breakout rooms (numbered consecutively from 1 to 10) you want to enter before the meeting and enjoy a conversation with one more brother/sister or a small group of them (usually not more than 5 in one breakout room). After the meeting we are distributed by a random generator into the several breakout rooms for 5 minutes, then we are "shuffeled" again for the next 5 minutes...etc.

 

Before we agreed to this procedure, it was very hard to have a "normal" conversation before the meeting, because we are about 100 people! It was a big mess - EVERYONE was talking at the same time, the only thing you gained from those "conversations" was a headache. Now it´s much better. For example, I usually meet with the same 2 sisters in one b-room before the meeting, and we can have a nice small-talk. Sometimes one or two more people join, sometimes it´s just the three of us. After the meeting, I stay for 1-2 "random mixtures" and so overall I talk to 3 - 8 different people every time, having funny conversations and encouragement within the breakout rooms.

[Witness1970]

I told the COBE that I could do breakout rooms after the meeting.  The elders agreed.

 

I started doing breakout with people automatically assigned to a room, but able to move from room to room after the rooms are open.

 

The second week the COBE asked if I could make a private room for the Service Committee.  I opened the rooms without the automatic assignment.  I allowed everyone to choose rooms.  I labelled one of the rooms, "Private Room" expecting the publishers to stay out of the room.  It worked fine.  The Service Committee had their meeting without interruption.

 

Since then, I have used the automatic assignment with the option for publishers to move from room to room.

 

Everyone says they love the rooms and the association.  They have gotten acquainted with ones that they knew little about before.

[Qapla]

We may have to build some add-on rooms to the KH so we can still have breakout rooms when we get back to the KH.