Transitioning your activities to an online platform

We have seen a remarkable effort from our member groups as they seek to carry on supporting member development and organise themselves to support their local communities during ‘business unusual’.

To help you get your activities online we have developed guidance to support you. We are also available to discuss support for getting you online, so please get in contact.

BCS video conferencing resources

Events

BCS provides centrally administered access to gotowebinar as a resource to support online events. We have produced a webinar demo showing some of its features. There are also lots of resources online that are just a google search away to support and teach the use of gotowebinar. From a volunteer resource perspective, here are the headlines:

• Up to 1000 participants
• Question listing function
• Ability to mute or unmute all participants - allowing direct audience participation.
• Screen sharing
• VOIP audio, back up telephone dial in.
• Meeting start support from our facilities team
• Subtitle compatibility during PowerPoint presentations
• Mobile app
• Technical requirements:
  
  
  • Attendee
  • Host / Presenter 

To see an overview of the tool please watch our demo

As video conference tools require participants to provide personal information, we ask that you only use GoToWebinar - this information can then be centrally administered by BCS staff.

Events will all continue to be advertised on Eventbrite and listed as an online event.

Committee meetings

We are less prescriptive on committee meeting video conferencing tools, we offer gotomeeting and Microsoft teams access which need to be prebooked however there may be tools in which committee members have access to and are more familiar with.

Gotomeeting features:

• VOIP audio, back up telephone dial in.
• Video and Screen sharing
• Up to 25 participants
• Mobile compatibility using app

We can also arrange Microsoft teams meetings for committee meetings. Features include:

• 1080p calls
• Up to 250 particpants
• Ability to share screens and record calls.
• Users can also meet or collaborate on-the-go using Microsoft Teams apps for smartphones and tablets.

Book Gotomeeting or Microsoft teams calls via groups@bcs.uk.

One tool not supported by BCS but has a good reputation in the privacy community and has been developed by an open source community is jitsi, this allows full functionality for free but also benefits from avoiding some of the more privacy invasive features of ‘household’ brands. This tool is particularly useful for organising your committee meetings or activity without having to request meeting through your coordinator.

Committee online workspace - Basecamp

Basecamp is a real-time communication tool that helps coordinate activity. With to-do-lists, calendaring, due dates and file-sharing, Basecamp provides a way for teams to keep track of priorities and actionable items.

Basecamp is an approved tool for committees to use and is centrally administered. We can set you up with a workspace via groups@bcs.uk.  Nearly half of our groups are already using Basecamp as a committee tool, if you’d like guidance on how to use it for committee business then put a call out on our member group Community Forum.