AN IMPORTANT TIP FOR MUNICIPALITIES USING ZOOM FOR PUBLIC MEETINGS UNDER NYS GOVERNOR’S GUIDANCE
Following Governor Cuomo’s Executive Order 202.6, many municipalities are using Zoom to comply with the requirement that remote meetings be made available to the public.
We want you to be aware of one potential complication of doing so.
Today’s Daily Freeman brings word of an unfortunate Zoom experience in the Town of Esopus, when trolls “Zoom-bombed” the Town Board meeting and subjected the participants to an obscenity laced racist rant. Click here to read the article.
Earlier this month, Zoom released guidance for users who want to protect themselves from Zoom-bombing.
Of special note, Zoom cautions users against starting public events with their Personal Meeting ID (PMI), instead, Zoom recommends generating a “one off” random meeting ID. Municipalities should keep this in mind when noticing public meetings.
Zoom also recommends using the Waiting Room feature, which allows the meeting host to control who enters the meeting. When possible, municipalities should designate an experienced user to act as the host/moderator.
Zoom also offers numerous suggestions for managing participants.
- Allow only signed-in users to join
- Lock the meeting
- Remove unwanted or disruptive participants
- Prevent removed participants from rejoining
- Turn off file transfer
- Turn off annotation
- Prevent participants from screen sharing
- Put participants on hold
- Disable video
- Mute participants
- Disable private chat
If municipalities don’t already have an experienced user available, tutorials are available on the Zoom site that show you hot to start, join, and “how to” advice on using additional features of this ubiquitous platform.
If you need assistance in preparing to shift to a conference call meeting, please contact us by phone or email.
Click here to read another article on public meetings.
This is not intended to be legal advice. You should contact an attorney for advice regarding your specific situation.
J&G, LLP practices municipal, land use, environmental, zoning and many other areas of law impacting municipalities. We can be reached at (845) 764-9656.
