Streaming and Virtual church meetings - now in handbook!


NeuroTypical
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I get excited about this stuff.  

Handbook 29.7 - Streaming Meetings and Holding Virtual Meetings

Summary:
-The link isn't an excuse to not attend church if you can. 
-It is not to be considered a convenience.  Don't broadcast the actual sacrament portion. 
-"Streams" are broadcast only, "Virtual Meeting" are interactive. 
-Delete all recordings within one day.

I'm in a ward with older folks, lots of retired military, relatively well-to-do overall.  Quite conservative.  We went back to in-person ASAP (which was shortly after someone had a news article about how this or that politician-in-charge was making a fuss over the constitutionality of banning church attendance.)  Ever since, we've had maybe 65% in-person attendance, 45% virtual.  After a few months of laptops and cheap webcams, the wards in the building spent ~$600 on a better camera and decent AV equipment.  Me and one other guy take turns running the camera.  I just got back from broadcasting our ward's 2nd funeral in the last 6 months.

Edited by NeuroTypical
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Also, in a church where our leaders speak often about putting away electronic devices on Sunday, especially during the sacrament, I am tickled pink to be the the special one in the pews concentrating on his laptop, listening to his phone through one earpiece.  My inner teenager rejoices that the rules don't apply to me!  (I know this isn't what "be as little children" means, but could it mean it maybe just a little?)

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2 hours ago, Vort said:

That's awesome. Do you have any suggestions how the rest of us might achieve a 110% attendance rate?

Pull it up on your phone while sitting in the Pews.

At least that's what I am thinking several in the audience who were on their cellphones were doing during sacrament today (yes, I'm being somewhat sarcastic here, I'm pretty sure most of them were doing something else, but...we should give them the benefit of the doubt.  They could have simply been attending virtually as well as in person).

More seriously, this is a good thing.  I got vaccinated finally and have attended meetings in person, but I know many of my friends, even those who have been vaccinated are currently not attending in person.  A LOT of it is due to unknowns about how virulent the virus is even after one has gotten the vaccine and how some of the area leadership have acted in recent months with which some of them have now commented to me, however, I honestly do not know how many of them are attending in person.

My expectations (and I could be extremely off on this) is that attendance will rise as more get vaccinated, but I do not know.

Edit:  I appreciated the streaming before being vaccinated, and I'm sure it is still a useful tool for many out there in our current situation, and may continue to be in the future.  I would esteem that @NeuroTypical is doing a very good deed in helping many of those out there in need by doing this calling.

Edited by JohnsonJones
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7 hours ago, Vort said:

That's awesome. Do you have any suggestions how the rest of us might achieve a 110% attendance rate?

We use a modified-Standard-Salt-Lake-Clerk-Counting system at sacrament.  

The original: "One, two, [skip a few], 99, 100!"

The modified: "I'm reasonably sure that every zoom login counts for two people, because of couples and families and stuff."

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I confess we've used the link if the baby is still napping... Usually one caretaker stays home to watch the link, the other takes the non-napping children.

Going to church is exciting for us because our new building after a boundary change is the one across the street from us rather than the one down the block.

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On 4/11/2021 at 12:52 PM, Vort said:

That's awesome. Do you have any suggestions how the rest of us might achieve a 110% attendance rate?

I hate it when I hear people say: "I gave 110%," or "I'm with you 110%."

Heck, I would love to get a 100% annual rate of return on a monetary investment.  It has not happened yet to me.  If you are getting over a 10 percent annual rate of return on an investment that is really good in my opinion.

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On 4/11/2021 at 1:52 PM, Vort said:

That's awesome. Do you have any suggestions how the rest of us might achieve a 110% attendance rate?

I do the counting of persons attending in person.  The other clerk checks the Zoom attendees and we add them up.  So, if all those attending also attend the Zoom meeting from their phones...

 

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