The Provincial Grand Lodge of Stirlingshire |
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Procedures and Guidelines
for Digital Meetings
During the current
Coronavirus Pandemic
Procedures for Digital Lodge
Business Meetings: -
When Lodges are unable to meet in
person, they may choose to hold Digital Lodge Business meetings to
maintain fellowship and strengthen the bonds of Brotherly Love, Relief
and Truth.
Lodges should choose a platform to
conduct digital lodge business meetings that gives them confidence. Most
Lodges use Zoom, however there are several alternatives available.
Lodges can hold their digital lodge
business meetings as often as members require and at a frequency that
allows everyone to remain connected to each other.
Lodges should, where reasonably
possible, ensure all members of the Lodge are able to access the digital
lodge business meetings.
The decision for Lodges to admit
members of the craft from other lodges to their digital meetings – such
as a general lecture - is at the discretion of the lodge. However, in
general terms, for security purposes especially, it is recommended that
if the Lodge is participating in a digitised meeting it should be
restricted to members of the Lodge
All Mason’s attending must be
identifiable by face, on live video. Zoom have recently made
improvements to the security and each Lodge should take advantage of
their Password and Waiting Room facilities – those will enhance
security. See “Latest information from Zoom”
The recording of digital lodge business meetings is strictly prohibited. However, the content of a lecture may be recorded for future use. This is not only to uphold the privacy of each member but again to aid good security in general. However, it is recommended that a written account be made of any business discussed for inclusion in the Minute of the next normal meeting of the Lodge.
Masons attending digital lodge business meetings should adhere to the same decorum and standards of any meeting containing Just, Upright and Free Men who have sound judgement and strict morals.
Under no circumstances should Signs,
Secrets, Rites or Ceremonies be performed at any time during a digital
lodge business meeting. The Lodge is not Tyled and decisions are not
binding as if they were conducted at a Regular Meeting. Digital Lodge
Business Meetings do not replace a Lodges Regular meeting, they are in
lieu of their ability to meet. Digital Lodge Business meetings do not in
any way, no matter how they may seem or appear to, meet the requirements
of the Ancient Landmarks, Ancient Charges and Regulations, and
Constitution to be considered Tyled in any or remote form. Further,
Digital Lodge Business meetings must not appear or seem to be Tyled.
Digital Meetings should have an agenda, be timely and run to a format in order to ensure the smooth running of the meeting. All attendees should be on mute unless they are speaking. The Master should chair the meeting, in his absence the Immediate Past Master or any other Past Master
Key Items to Note:
All microphones should be on mute unless you are being spoken to
To speak, unmute and address the Master
Please remember that decorum and respect should always prevail with only one memberspeaking at a time.
If you need to leave the meeting, just as you would in a lodge meeting, excuse yourself to the Master.
Meetings should have an agreed time limit, and should more time be needed, agree to meet again to continue the discussion.
Digital Business Meetings can be as a Lodge or as a Sub-Committee of the Lodge,
Reports to the digital
meeting should be short but are needed to keep the members up todate
with the business of the lodge, try to move onto the work for the
meeting as quickly as possible.
12.
Procedures for Commencing an online
meeting:
The Master will first ensure that only Masons are present and do a quick roll call of those present.
He should, when satisfied, declare the meeting open.
When all matters have
been satisfactorily dealt with, he should formally declare the
meeting to be closed.
Latest information from
Zoom:
Meeting Passwords Enabled
“On”
Going forward, your previously scheduled meetings (including those
scheduled via your Personal Meeting ID) will have passwords enabled. If
your attendees are joining via a meeting link, there will be no
change to their joining experience. For attendees who join meetings
by manually entering a Meeting ID, they will need to enter a password to
access the meeting.
For attendees joining
manually, we highly recommend re-sharing the updated meeting invitation
before your workweek begins.
Here’s how you can do that:
Log in to your account,
visit your
Meetings tab, select your upcoming meeting by name, and copy
the new meeting invitation to share with your attendees.
For meetings scheduled
moving forward, the meeting password can be found in the invitation. For
instant meetings, the password will be displayed in the Zoom client. The
password can also be found in the meeting join URL.
Virtual Waiting Room
Turned on by Default
Going forward, the virtual waiting room feature will be
automatically turned on by default. The
Waiting Room is just like it sounds: It’s a virtual staging
area that prevents people from joining a meeting until the host is ready
For more information on how
to leverage passwords and Waiting Rooms to secure your meetings, please
visit our
Knowledge Centre, attend a
daily live demo, or visit our
Blog.
Please reach out to our
Support Team if you have any questions at
support@zoom.us.
GMM
13 April 2020