About twenty years ago, I was working for a state denominational organization. A friend had recently joined another person in a business to offer video teleconferencing. What a great idea! This would cut down on travel and allow us to gather people from all over the state for planning meetings. The two of them came to our office to show off their product. In fact, they came twice. It was a major disappointment! Connection was erratic, the picture froze, and the sound was inaudible. Despite their best efforts, the device was not ready for prime time.
On a recent day, I spent six hours on the Zoom teleconference platform (this doesn’t happen every day, fortunately). I did individual planning with colleagues in North Carolina, Kansas, and South Carolina. I coached a pastor in Kentucky. I was part of a webinar that included fifty people from several states. I facilitated a coach training class with participants from four states and taught a seminary class with students from five states. And I did all of this from the chair in my home office.
Now, I don’t want that heavy a load every day, and I could have done some of that by phone, but I was able to see, hear, and interact with almost seventy people in one day through the online platform. I think that is pretty amazing!
I hear people talk about Zoom fatigue, but I left any number of in person meetings with real fatigue and tiredness! Perhaps the reason that I don’t have Zoom fatigue is that I like the people with whom I interact online, and I engage in a variety of experiences through this medium.
Online teleconferencing platforms—Zoom, GoToMeeting, Google Hangout—have allowed business, government, non-profits, and religious organizations to survive during the pandemic. We have found that online meetings are often preferable to in-person gatherings, saving both time and money.
Do I look forward to in-person meetings again? Of course. But there is much that we can do online that will prepare us to use that time together more productively.
Do I condemn virtual meetings? No, I celebrate them and hope we will continue to find ways to use them effectively.
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