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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Ed Snible, post: 4308794, member: 82322&quot;]I ran Zoom and WebEx for many years with my software teams and now use them for my coin clubs.</p><p><br /></p><p>In the last few weeks I have run two coin club meetings by WebEx and attended two by Zoom.</p><p><br /></p><p>Several of my older club members don&#039;t have computers.&nbsp; They claim to really appreciate that video conference systems let them join without a computer by telephone.&nbsp; Both of them live alone and are nervous about socializing because they are old and we live in the New York Metro Area.&nbsp; It is best if these folks are encouraged to talk, even if they can&#039;t show coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>Holding coins up to the laptop camera does not work.&nbsp; The coins are illegible.&nbsp; I have tried sharing with a USB microscope and the coins are visible but the magnification is too great.&nbsp; It is also too slow.</p><p><br /></p><p>Sharing coins is best done with the &quot;share screen&quot; feature of Zoom/WebEx.&nbsp; Most new users have a hard time finding the button SHARE SCREEN.&nbsp; I have been sending out a picture of the controls with labels.</p><p><br /></p><p>Nearly everyone has photos of at least some of their collections.&nbsp; For users without photos, the &quot;slab verification&quot; feature of NGC, NGC Ancients, and PCGS has decent pictures.&nbsp; So everyone can show something.</p><p><br /></p><p>PowerPoint works the best.&nbsp; When folks are trying to double click on a folder full of icons they don&#039;t realize how slow and boring it is.&nbsp; PowerPoint makes it easy to flip through pictures and add text.&nbsp; The folks who have spoken at coin clubs often have this skill and something ready to go for the first meeting.</p><p><br /></p><p>If people are showing exhibits don&#039;t drag them out.&nbsp; Most collectors are bored stiff of coins outside their own favorite speciality unless the coins are extremely valuable.&nbsp; So if you don&#039;t have valuable coins, only show a few, especially if you have more than 10 folks in your club!</p><p><br /></p><p>I don&#039;t know how it is in your town.&nbsp; Here in NYC we are mostly sheltering-in-place.&nbsp; Everyone who has been to the meetings I have attended has seemed to really appreciate having the virtual club, seeing each others&#039; faces and hearing their voices.</p><p><br /></p><p>Last I was on a Zoom meeting hosted by a candidate for US Congress.&nbsp; He was interviewing a doctor about Coronavirus resources in southern Westchester County. People are dying here.&nbsp; About 20 minutes in someone showed up and started presenting hardcore pornography.&nbsp; The host kicked him off, but then a dozen school children showed up and another pornographer.&nbsp; The candidate shut down the meeting because his tech guy didn&#039;t know how to use the Zoom host controls.&nbsp; This &quot;Zoom Bombing&quot; was in the news the next day.&nbsp; It is the new annoyance of the age..</p><p><br /></p><p>For that kind of security there are some basic steps to &quot;lock&quot; the meeting with a waiting room.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1096059[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>If the meeting is &quot;locked&quot; the host has to explicitly let people in.&nbsp; Attendees see a screen that says &quot;you will enter the meeting when someone lets you in&quot; until the host brings them in.&nbsp; At the club last night the meeting was initially open but locked after 15 minutes.</p><p><br /></p><p>Tomorrow I will attended a Zoom presentation by the American Numismatic Society on coins of Antony and Cleopatra.&nbsp; This will be the first presentation by them I will attend virtually.&nbsp; I have attended these in person, which were formerly open to all with a fee for the included lunch.&nbsp; Tomorrow&#039;s is only open to ANS members.&nbsp; (If anyone is interested I can report how it went here.)[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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