Cherry Capital has been asked to assist in developing a process for remote public meetings. Our ability to deliver High Speed Internet access has been significantly delayed based on public meetings being cancelled.

 

Cherry Capital Connection, LLC technical staff has reviewed a number of conference call and webinar platforms available. Each has there pros and cons. Based on our review of the MI executive order regarding the Open Meetings act we identified the following features as key to being in compliance.

1. The ability to control the conversation,

a. Raising a hand to speak,

b. Muting a conversation,

c. Multiple Co-Hosts.

2. The ability to share documents and screen sharing,

3. Provide local number dialing for participation,

4. Provide a toll free number access,

5. Provide the ability to raise your hand to speak,

6. Create multiple environments one for the general public and one for the commissioners or committee members,

7. The ability to record the meeting,

8. Conference phone capabilities supporting a large open space such as the community center,

9. Setting up a meeting in advance and tailored to your meeting needs,

10. Provide the ability to participate,

a. With a simple "plan O telephone" (flip phone, landline, etc)

b. VoIP phone,

c. A smart phone / tablet,

d. A computer

There may be other features that you feel may be required and we welcome your feedback. This solution requires 2 products to take full advantage of all features: 1) Zoom Pro and 2)Cherry Capital Connection voice conferencing.

Toll free number calling added an excessive per meeting cost when using cloud based solutions, so we have incorporated the C.C.C. conference meeting capabilities to zoom to provide a cost effective toll free solution. The township may elect to purchase their own zoom account or we will moderate your meeting using or license as free service to the community during this C-19 event.

For members of the commission that want to be a co-host you will need to load zoom on your co-hosting computer or smart phone and will need High Speed Internet access. Those that want to participate using their dial in phone will be provided a local number, for those that want a toll free number they can participate but will be limited by group controls. We can provide you a web page for the specifics and links to how to conduct a remote meeting for people to review prior to any meeting.

Here is a list of what the participants can do if they call into a Zoom meeting through the Toll number (not a CCC toll free number) provided on the invitation.

Participants:

• *6 – Mute/Unmute Self (if host or co-host allows)

• *9 – Raise Hand for Host or co-host Attention

The host has a list of commands they can use themselves if they need to call into the meeting.

Host:

• *4 - End the meeting for all participants

• *5 - Lock or Unlock the meeting

• *6 - Mute or unmute yourself

• *7 - Start or Stop Recording

Note: all participants in the meeting will be notified when recording is stopped or started.

• *# - Hear the number of participants in the meeting (excluded toll free number calling)

• 99 - Mute or unmute all participants

These phone only features were key to our decision to select Zoom with C.C.C. toll free incorporated