How to be polite and helpful on phone conferences and Zoom meetings Frank E. Ritter ACS Tech. Note 2020-1 6 November 2019/revised 19mar20/15feb22 These are notes on how to be polite on phone/video conferences, both with and without further technology than a phone. They also can be seen as how to be more efficient. Also see Farnum, J., Stager, S. J., Ricupero, S., & Ritter, F. E. (2021). Zoom Troubleshooting Handbook: To support presenters and attendees at the ONR Cognitive Science of Learning Program Review (Tech. Report No. ACS 2019-1, Version: 2.9). Applied Cognitive Science Lab, College of Information Sciences and Technology, Penn State. acs.ist.psu.edu/reports/farnumSRR21.pdf. Set up ================= Send out slides/agendas (if you can) ahead of time to help people dialled in to follow along Send out how to connect clearly, including time, number, password (as needed), and backup plans. have someone wrangle the phone con who is not the speaker, if you can If it is a high-stakes call, have back up phones and chargers for everyone have each remote person have a buddy in the room (if you can) via text or email who can ask as an informal side-channel (e.g, what slide are we on? where did everyone go?). If you are all in Zoom, use Zoom's chat or email to ask questions and pass notes. Trust least those you trust most. If someone has not showed up that you really think they would have, call them using another system. They may have forgotten, or may be having trouble finding you. Speaker/Leader/Host/Facilitator (you might have two) =============================================== Do a sound check as the call is set up It can be useful to have an inconspicuous background noise keep the microphone open on the main call. It can be quite distracting to hear distant phone calls and cawing birds. Introduce everyone in the room and on the phone so we can recognise voices and 'see' who is in the room. This is more important for phone calls where there is less context. It may be worthwhile to put up a piece of paper or card that shows who is on the phone and where the microphone is so you can speak to it Call out slide numbers when you move, or at least say "Next slide". Do call out to the phone/distant folks for comments, as they have trouble interrupting or seeing where they can say something. You might leave the room or call open for a while as the meeting breaks up. This can facilitate side conversations. Participants ============== Do your best to be on time. Work in a sheltered spot if possible for example, try not to drive while on conference phone call Be careful when you leave your sheltered spot. Use mute appropriately: on when typing or making coffee or when you have background noises, off when you might need to respond in a conversation in a timely way. But, don't over mute. Practice using your system so there are not long pauses while you try to unmute, and so that you know your mute state. When you join, you should try to introduce yourself (if it is a small crowd), or not (if a large crowd or you are small), or the host might ask who joined. BTW: the host has to remember to do this. Be mindful about other people and viewpoints, try not to dominate the conversation as there are less clues and cues to know about your audience. Have a pad of paper to take notes and collect your thoughts to share. You might not be able to make your points as quickly and easily as in a F2F conversation. I often end up batching my comments. Minimize the effect of your eating unless it is 'brown-bag' luncheon meeting. Other notes ============ These meetings work better if people know each other. Integrated systems like Discord / Skype / WebX / Zoom through a computer can help; where available, and when it works. Headsets work better than speaker phones for individuals; speaker phones are necessary for crowds. Acknowledgements ================ Comments from Frank Ahern helped improve this document. It was inspired by conversations with Peter Weyhrauch and working with Charles River Analytics and ONR (in that they provided good examples).