Zoom Your Vote! (Another Covid-19 Tech Primer )
If you’ve been following the progression of our Next90 Building Expansion project lately, you may remember that we’ve recently been approved to take our next major step as a congregation — the vote to move forward into construction — via Zoom. This unprecedented form of the congregational vote, a sign of our COVID-19 times, was approved by our District Superintendent Rev. Louis Carr.
So, if you’re like most people, you may now be wondering, How in the world do we do that? How does it work?
Rest assured, more details will be forthcoming as the date gets closer, but for now to answer a few of these questions, here are a few basic details:
The Zoom Congregational Vote on September 13 at 1:00 pm will not be like any other Zoom meeting you’ve been in at our church. Because of the restrictions and guidelines of The United Methodist Book of Discipline, this vote will be taken via Zoom webinar, which comes with a different set of instructions, capabilities, and requirements.
Some things, however, remain the same. If you’ve been Zooming already, you probably already have the app installed on the device you will most likely want to use. It is important to note that each person voting must be logged in on a separate device, so husband and wife, sitting side by side on their living room sofa, will still have to be logged in separately on their respective devices; each one needs to have the Zoom app downloaded and updated to the latest available version.
You will need to register in advance for this meeting in order to vote. Once you register to attend this meeting, you will receive the link to the webinar via email.
There is no chat function through which you can interact with other viewers; in fact, you won’t be able to see the other viewers at all.
Instead, a Q&A button will allow you to ask questions, which will then be relayed to the meeting leaders.
When the time comes to vote, you will cast your vote using the poll function, following prompts that will pop up on your screen. Please note: Audio-only participants cannot vote.
You must be a church member to vote; if you’ve been visiting for a while and would like to be able to vote, please contact Lisa Helm (lhelm@myfumc.org) to make arrangements to join the church prior to the vote.
We will know the result immediately! Be sure to join us for this vote to become a part of this great moment in First Church history.