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Virtual Neighborhood Meetings

As the City continues to grow and adapt our virtual meetings processes, we have identified the need for Zoom accounts designated specifically to virtual neighborhood meetings. Two Zoom accounts are available for facilitating virtual neighborhood meetings for Common Council.

These Zoom accounts are for official City business only. Any meetings that are not sponsored by the City of Madison (e.g., neighborhood associations, non-profit organizations, schools, etc.) should not use these accounts for meetings.

Examples of Neighborhood Meetings

  • Neighborhood meetings on a development project in an Alder’s district.
  • Neighborhood meetings on traffic safety issues.
  • Neighborhood meetings on public transportation.

Training

While not required, training is highly recommended to successfully facilitate your virtual neighborhood meeting. Training will provide the tools, resources and knowledge necessary for you to hold meetings independently, without IT support.

Contact meetingsupport@cityofmadison.com if you need any assistance in hosting a virtual neighborhood meeting.

Meeting Process

  1. Request a Virtual Neighborhood Meeting

    • An Alder or City staff person sends a request to Council staff for a neighborhood meeting.

  2. Schedule the Meeting

    • Council staff coordinate with City agency staff, Alder(s), and the Zoom Outlook Calendar accounts to schedule the neighborhood meeting.
    • Once a time and date are selected, Council staff will reserve the time in the Neighborhood Meeting Outlook Calendar account, using the Outlook Calendar Guidelines.

  3. Council Staff Schedule Zoom Meeting

    • Once a time and date are reserved, Council staff will schedule the neighborhood meeting in Zoom with the available account.
      • Council staff will use the council@cityofmadison.com email account to schedule the Neighborhood meeting in Zoom.
      • Remember to make sure to enable the Zoom registration for the meeting. The registration link is used to invite residents to participate in the meeting. Alders can also post the link to their blog, send in postcards, etc.
        • If you wish to create a shortened registration URL, please email helpdesk@cityofmadison.com. IT staff will assist with best practices on shorten URLs.
    • Council staff will send the account login information to City staff so that they can host the meeting.

  4. Hold the Meeting

    • City staff log into the designated neighborhood meeting account to host the meeting.
    • For more information on facilitating meetings, review the Neighborhood Meetings Host Manual.
    • If you need a report of the registrants that attended the meeting, please email meetingsupport@cityofmadison.com. Please include the following in your request.
      • Meeting Name
      • Meeting Date
      • Meeting Time

  5. Meeting Recordings

    • Neighborhood meetings are pre-approved for recording.
    • If the meeting is being recorded, the host will click Record on the control panel.
    • After the meeting, the meeting recording will be publicly available at Mediasite's Neighborhood Meetings channel. You can also visit this page to get a link for sharing or embedding the neighborhood meeting.

Zoom Features for Neighborhood Meetings

Feature Description
Capacity Up to 500 participants in meeting and waiting room
Audio Sharing Host can allow to un-mute themselves
Video Sharing Host can allow to turn on
Screen Sharing Hosts and co-hosts
Annotation Hosts and co-hosts
Whiteboard Included
Polling Included
Breakout Rooms Included
Meeting Reactions Included
Nonverbal Feedback Included
Email Reminders Included
Waiting Room Included
Require Password to Join Included
Toll Free Dial-in Numbers Included

Technical Support

We want to empower City staff to be autonomous in facilitating virtual neighborhood meetings with training resources and step-by-step instructions, so that staff do not need IT assistance to have a meeting. If technical support is required, staff can contact Zoom support directly.

Zoom Support

You will need your personal meeting ID and host key to place a service request.

https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us
Phone: 1 (888) 799-9666 ext. 2.

Information Technology