Meeting Guidelines for Committee Chairs

Effective June 1, 2021

Massachusetts Open Meeting Law takes precedence:

The Open Meeting Law | Mass.gov
Updated guidance on holding meetings during the COVID-19 state of emergency | Mass.gov

All meetings must include use of virtual meeting technology. There are no exceptions. If you schedule an in-person meeting you must also offer remote participation via virtual meeting technology.

A meeting’s virtual meeting technology session must remain active throughout the duration of the meeting even if no remote participants join.

Materials shared during the meeting should be displayed on the virtual session. Viewing of large maps will be best facilitated using an external computer camera that can be mounted on a tripod and positioned for optimal viewing.

Making things run smoothly

Be sure that your posted agenda includes instructions for participating remotely through virtual meeting technology
Make available ahead of time all documents that will be referenced in the meeting. Documents or links to them should be included with the agenda.
Screen sharing is a very useful feature but can be challenging for less experienced users. If you plan on using this feature, and you are new to screen sharing, please practice ahead of time so that you are ready for your meeting.
Ask speakers to state their name before speaking.
Do not use the chat feature for addressing the meeting participants. This feature is best used for submitting questions and sharing web links. When used for submitting questions, answer questions in the order received. A participant with a follow up question must wait until all participants who have questions have had their initial questions answered.
Make sure that you are taking questions from people attending virtually, not just in person.
Some participants might be calling in by phone to the meeting. They will appear as caller 1, caller 2 etc. Ask callers to identify themselves. Make a note of each caller’s identity for the minutes (update their name on the screen) and to aid in interacting with them during the meeting
One handy feature of GoToMeeting (and probably other software) is to view everyone who signed into the meeting. This can be done after the meeting is over and is helpful for minutes.
Another handy feature of most virtual meeting technology is the ability for the meeting organizer to record the session. If you are planning on using that feature, it is important to let people know ahead of time and to warn late arrivals that the meeting is being recorded. A recording is not a substitute for formal meeting minutes.
Remote participants must have their microphone muted unless presently speaking. The meeting’s virtual meeting technology host (usually the Meeting Chair) shall mute participants who forget to mute themselves or are having difficulty with the mute feature.
The virtual meeting technology host (usually the Meeting Chair) may mute a participant’s microphone if it is distracting/disruptive to discussion, or if the participant has exceeded the allotted time for speaking.
When the camera is on for remote participants, be mindful of your surroundings.
The meeting rooms will be outfitted with speakers, microphones, and (perhaps) a camera. Instructions will be provided for how to hook your laptop up to the system. The equipment should be used to ensure that people participating remotely can hear everything that is said in the meeting room and that everyone in the meeting room can hear what is said by remote participants. If you are doing work on a white board or easel, ensure the camera can see what you are doing.

Scheduling Guidelines

Since we share a limited number of virtual meeting software licenses, we must be careful to not overrun another group’s meeting. Before scheduling your meeting with the software, ensure that there is not another meeting scheduled before yours that might run over, or another meeting after yours that might keep yours from running over.