AGM Venue

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AGM Venue

Postby GarethB » Sun 16 Feb 2014 9:49 am

As the 2014 AGM thread was promptly locked, what about reviewing the location.

I can't see from the locked thread where anyone was suggesting multiple AGM's in a year, just that could it be in a different location each year?

Having looked at who is currently on the committee, a vast majority are from London and as an outsider looking in, it looks like the National group is an extension of the London Group.

There are three other Local Groups, East Midlands, West Midlands (which looks to be launching itself) and Scotland, so what about next year being somewhere in the Midlands and the year after Scotland before returning back to London and starting the whole cycle again.

The same could perhaps go for committee meetings, move those round the country, make more use of Skype or other teleconferencing facilities and then perhaps a wider variety of people wold get involved.

Perhaps a get to know your committee, I know what some of the people do, but there are some people I would like to know what contribution they make. I know not everyone is on the forum and they may well be doing sterling work behind the scenes and if this is the case it would be nice if the rest of us were informed because someone might have something to offer and give additional support.
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Re: AGM Venue

Postby longhoc » Sun 16 Feb 2014 10:43 am

Hi Gareth, I've moved this post to a new thread.

Yes, we could consider moving the AGM around the country from year to year -- bearing in mind though that you can never please everyone ! For instance, I'd be okay for, say, Birmingham, Bristol or Plymouth. But I'd struggle to do Manchester there and back in a day and Newcastle would be pretty much impossible for me to do without an overnight stay -- something I'd find not easy to fit into my busy schedule.

Committees are trickier -- being roughly quarterly, most of the committee members are happy to volunteer their time for a couple of hours or so but if I had to give up an entire day to travelling across the country once every few months, well, let's say my commitment would definitely waiver after a while !

My own experience with videoconferencing is that it's fine for 1-to-1 communications, perhaps stretching up to 4 or 5 participants. But once you get above, perhaps, half a dozen people even with money-no-object professionally hosted facilities, it gets tricky to manage and I've struggled to follow the flow of conversation when you get larger numbers. And the complexity does increase -- you need multiple mics and more than one camera to cover a group of, for example, 10.

Cheers

Chris

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Re: AGM Venue

Postby space_cadet » Sun 16 Feb 2014 1:05 pm

the facility of Ustream would enable a wider audience to hear the AGM, to be told their is no wifi at the venue to be honest I find fair enough , but no one thinking to get perhaps a pay n go usb based dongle, or has no one on the committee a dongle they could loan for the day, I have a pay n go o2 one sat here id be willing to loan for the purpose of teh wider KC community and membership being ablet o hear the AGM as feel it is important to reach as much of the membership as possible when the AGM affects far more than just those there.

Like Gareth it does seemt hat the group is rapidly becoming an extention of the London group so not a true representation.

If the committee would like the usb dongle I have then please let me know n I can arrange to mail it down, as it would be in the best interests I feel of the membership to be able to listen (as lets face it visually many of us wouldnt benefit from visuals)

Lea x
May09 Diagnosed with KC, March 2010 after a failed transplant it has left me legally blind a long cane user (since 2010) who is blind in a once sighted world

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Re: AGM Venue

Postby longhoc » Sun 16 Feb 2014 1:34 pm

Hi Lea

My desk draw here is sinking under the weight of USB mobile broadband devices, PC Express Cards, Bluetooth-equipped phones etc. They all have the same limitation -- they use 3G network. It's not reliable enough -- even (or perhaps I should say "especially" !) -- in central London to carry a consistent video stream for a couple of hours. I usually find I have to switch to "flight mode" and back out again on my various phones, cards, USB devices etc. after about 30-60 minutes of so of constant use to get the 3G network to remember to talk to my device.

Like I say, if we can't offer this (streaming video coverage) reliably, best to not offer it at all.

Cheers

Chris

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Re: AGM Venue

Postby GarethB » Mon 17 Feb 2014 9:39 am

I do a lot of teleconfrences with work as it is the only way to get a large number of people from across the world together without incurring travel costs and the associated polution that goes with air travel.

The system used is GlobalCrossing and I know others are available but this allows a presentation on one PC to be shared with everyone else and the phone lines can be muted so that there are no background interuptions. Atendees can be promoted to copresenter where there is a need for someone else to share their information. On the big confrences where there is more than 50 people, we use the built in instant messaging facility, so we have someone who can see these as they pop up but don't interupt the main presentation so at the end the prsenter can go through all the questions submitted.

My wife has attended similar type sessions run my carears advisors, in those everything is done via the PC so you see the presentation and hear the presenter but the only way to ask questions is to use the instant messenger that is part of the web confrencing facility used. To access these sessions you have to register your intent and a link is sent to the attendee to use to access the webstream.

There will be peopel who don't have computer access and would need to attend a venue, but it would also open things up to a wider audiance.

Regading committee meetings at differnt locations, as far as I recall for a corum to be present to make decisions there is no need for everyone to be present at all meetings, I am sure this isn't the case for those located in London as it is. So I am unable to understand the issue, again using a web confrencing facility would overcome this. At work where a vote needs to be made, the instant messanger is used to collate the votes which is then printed to a pdf file for the records so we now have a proper record of votes cast rather than a show of hands recorded in the meeting minutes. This could then perhaps give more people the incentive to volunteer and support the group in a larger capacity.
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Re: AGM Venue

Postby longhoc » Mon 17 Feb 2014 10:42 am

Hi Gareth

Yes, you're quite right, sophisticated facilities are available for audio and/or video conferencing -- if you've got the time, the budget and the know-how to implement them and keep them working. We're sadly lacking in those qualities to varying degrees ! So it's not something we're choosing to do right now.

And the reality is, for the Committee as currently constituted, we're all with one exception London or South-East based. As a Yorkshireman, the seemingly unstoppable drift to London (or at least, South of England) centricity doesn't exactly delight me. But there is a valid reason for it: more people live there than elsewhere.

Cheers

Chris

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Re: AGM Venue

Postby Sweet » Sat 22 Feb 2014 5:16 pm

Gareth,

It is lovely to see you posting again. Maybe you should still be on the committee and helping us out with this?!!!!

Lea yes we do have a dongle thanks.

It is not just implementing this technology, as you know, it is about having the time to work together. Gareth having been on the committee you know how it all works, please don't have a go at us as well. I thought more of you than that.

Claire Xxx
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