Sadly, as many of you have experienced, people have disrupted online meetings in our fellowship. While we may not be able to completely stop them, here are few tips provided by fellows* who have been dealing with these online meeting disruptors. 

You must have Host or Co-Host access to take action on these suggestions. If you are not a meeting host, then send a link to this page to the secretary or host so they can take action.

Note: Some controls may look different for your version of Zoom. Before your next meeting,  review to Zoom instructions and find your computer or device type at the bottom of the page to access specific instructions.

Remove the Offending Participant

This action will kick the attendee off the call and keep them from coming back under the same account.

1. Go to the Manage Participants window at the bottom of the screen.
2. Find the name of the offending participant by either by scrolling or searching in the Manage Participants window.
3. Select their name and click “More” and then “Remove.”

Stop a Participant’s Video

This function will immediately turn off the disruptive attendee’s video. 

1. Go to the Manage Participants window at the bottom fo the screen. 
2. Click on “More” 
3. Click on “Stop Video.”

Turn Off Participants Ability to Mute/Unmute Themselves

This function will keep disruptive attendee from being able to unmute themselves and interrupt the meeting verbally. It will also mean the host and co-host will have to manually unmute each speaker.

1. Go to the Manage Participants window at the bottom of the screen. 
2. Click on “More.”
3. Uncheck “Allow Participants to Unmute Themselves”

Prevent Participants From Renaming Themselves

If people are using this function to have offensive slurs and violent words visible on the Participants window, you can uncheck this option to prevent them from showing renaming.

1. Go to the Manage Participants window at the bottom of the screen. 
2. Click on “More.”
3. Click on “Allow Participants to Rename Themselves” and make sure the check mark is removed so the function is turned off.

Turn Off Chat

This function keeps disruptive attendees from being able to send offensive messages via chat.

• Go to the Manage Participants window at the bottom of the screen. 
• Click on the “…” button.
• Select  “Participants can chat with: host only”

Lock the Meeting

After an attendee has been removed from the meeting or a meeting ended and restarted, the disruptive attendees can return under a new account. Thus, you may need to Lock the Room to disable any new people to join.

1. Go to the Manage Participants window at the bottom of the screen. 
2. Click on “More.”
3. Select “Lock Meeting.”

After the meeting, consider looking at Zoom Waiting Rooms to allow an alternative to locking meetings.

STEP ROOMS CLOSURES:
Coral Room
Sunset Room

CLUBROOMS CLOSURES:
Boulevard Club
Friendship Club
Homestead Alano Club
Little River Club

For Zoom users: With the rush to shift to online meetings, many of us did not take time to investigate what this meant to the spiritual foundation of our recovery – namely, anonymity. Now that online meetings are accessible, we want to pass on best practices for protecting anonymity. These have been curated from the membership and online resources. 

The default Zoom settings run counter to AA’s spiritual foundation of anonymity. The meetings are publicly accessible and full names and faces are often displayed. Additionally, by default all Zoom meetings are recorded to the cloud. Turning that feature off is simple, fortunately.

Suggested Meeting Setting Changes to Preserve Anonymity

Here are some suggested settings for your meeting to use. Please note that most, if not all, of the settings below are not the Zoom default:

1. Login to Zoom.us
2. Click on Settings.
3. Click on the Meeting subtab.

There are other settings in the Meeting subtab that can also be adjusted, such as disallowing remote control of devices, file transfer, data sharing with Zoom, and screen sharing.

Here are some suggested settings for your meeting to use. Please note that most, if not all, of the settings below are not the Zoom default:

Go to: Settings > Recording and click off the Local and Cloud recording features.
In the Zoom Settings section, under the Meeting subtab:

• Require Encryption for Third Party Endpoints
• Disable Auto saving chats
• Disable File transfer
• Disable Feedback to Zoom
• Disable Screen sharing
• Disable desktop/screen share for users
• Disable Remote control
• Allow Virtual background (this is the Zoom default and allows the user to use a virtual background instead of the inside of their apartment, for example)

In the Zoom Settings section, under the Recording subtab:

• Disable Local recording
• Disable Cloud recording
• Disable Automatic recording 

We will update this page with additional information as we learn it and encourage you to share tips and tricks with us that we can include. And stay tuned for information on Seventh Tradition contributions.