Availability of Zoom licenses for local unit virtual meetings

[russellhltn]

Also, I can't open the PDF for this announcement. It gets to 12K and stops every time. If anyone is monitoring this topic, maybe you can review/update the pdf document.

Which one are you talking about? The one posted in the forum or the Official Communication Library? Either way, I can download fine.

I'd suggest trying private/incognito mode. If that works, you need to clear the cookies associated with church websites. The pages seems really struggle with old cookies. And yes, as strange as it sounds, I have had old cookies prevent downloading PDFs.

[coldmist]

the communication library. Even the download link.

[russellhltn]

the communication library. Even the download link.

Working fine for me.

[TomPittman7]

When you log in to https://meet.chuchofjesuschrist.org you'll be presented with two large option boxes, one will say "Zoom Accounts for Church Units" and the other will say "A Google Meet Account". If you don't have these options available to you make sure your calling, as the Stake Technology Specialist, is entered into LCR.

I have 11 bishops, and several elders quorum presidents and relief society presidents in our stake contacting me throughout each day wanting a status on their Zoom accounts. I would very much like to help them — but cannot thanks to bugs in the Church's system.

I have callings in two stakes.

In my home stake I serve as a "Stake Assistant Clerk--Technology Specialist".

In a YSA stake I serve as a high councilor and "Stake Assistant Clerk--Technology Specialist".

In both stakes the calling has been entered correctly using standard callings and not as a custom calling, so that's not the problem.

The stake clerk of my home stake is taking care of the Zoom accounts for the home stake, so I'm trying to setup the 12 units of my YSA stake.

When I go to meet.churchofjesuschrist.org in MacOS Safari, the "Unit" dropdown pick list only lists the units from my home stake, preventing me from doing my calling for the YSA stake.

I read in these forums that there is a bug that prevents people with more than one calling, or out of unit callings from getting things set up.

So a young single adult whose records are in the YSA stake and who doesn't a calling changed his password and let me use his account.

The YSA stake clerk made him "Stake Assistant Clerk--Technology Specialist".

I logged in as him and tried to setup the Zoom accounts, but whenever I go to meet.churchofjesuschrist.org in MacOS Safari, it always welcomes me under MY login, not his.

And I'm concerned that his login shows the units of my home stake, not his YSA stake, in the pick list.

Of course I've logged out of the church site, closed all browser tabs, and cleared the cache, but no matter what I do in MacOS Safari, the meet subdomain always welcomes me, not the new login.

There is no option to logout on meet.churchofjesuschrist.org or do anything at all that would let me help myself with this problem.

So I tried logging in as him in Firefox.

But when I go to meet.churchofjesuschrist.org, in MacOS Firefox, it instantly redirects me to the "Congratulations, your new Google Account is available!" page (see attached).

Seriously, no matter what I type, or what I click, meet.churchofjesuschrist.org always lands me on that page.

I'm stuck.

No matter what I try, I can't do my calling.

I don't know what else to try, and in the mean time I'm trying to stave off eager YSA bishops needing to use Zoom accounts.

Does anyone have anything else I can try?

[russellhltn]

The YSA stake clerk made him "Stake Assistant Clerk--Technology Specialist".

It takes time for the rights to go though the system. We usually advise 24 hours, but I think some people here saw it took longer.

That would be consistent with "meet" only seeing the Google option and no Zoom options.

I have 11 bishops, and several elders quorum presidents and relief society presidents in our stake contacting me throughout each day wanting a status on their Zoom accounts.

Keep in mind there is only ONE account for each ward. As such, you might want to place it in the hands of the bishop (or perhaps the Executive Secretary) and steer clear of the EQ and RS presidents. Let the bishop decide how they will be accommodated.

Edit: I'll add there's very little "technical" about using the site. You select the ward, supply an email the account is to be connected to, and press "Request License". and that's it. You see a status and have the option of removing the license. There's really very little to manage. Everything after clicking the button is handled by whoever handles the email that was submitted. You might want to consider allowing the person who's account you're using handle it. (When the calling permissions works it's way to his account.)

[lajackson]

Would I "provide" my email, or the email of the Bishop of the ward asking for it, or the 'tech' person in that ward handling the broadcasts?

You provide the email that will be used to sign in to the Zoom Account and manage it, setting up meetings, etc. This email will also receive notifications from Zoom about pending meetings, folks trying to enter meetings early, and other administrative stuff.

And each Zoom account for each unit has to have a different email address, unless you use the trick outlined in the link that describes how to manage multiple Zoom accounts from one Google email address.

[drepouille]

You provide the email that will be used to sign in to the Zoom Account and manage it, setting up meetings, etc. This email will also receive notifications from Zoom about pending meetings, folks trying to enter meetings early, and other administrative stuff.

And each Zoom account for each unit has to have a different email address, unless you use the trick outlined in the link that describes how to manage multiple Zoom accounts from one Google email address.

My STS sent me the Gmail "+" email address and the password for my ward Zoom account. So I can login to Zoom as the ward account admin, but I have no access to the Gmail "+" inbox or calendar. I asked the STS if I could change the email address to something that I can access, but he said the stake wanted to maintain control of my ward Zoom account.

Should I be concerned about that?

[lajackson]

Should I be concerned about that?

As the stake STS, I asked the units not to change the address, but I cannot keep them from changing it. I told them that if they do change it, I will no longer be able to help them if they have any problems. If they get locked out or otherwise crater the account, my only option will be to totally remove the account and set it up all over again.

I do receive a number of emails for the accounts, most of which I feel comfortable ignoring, but some I feel the obligation to forward to the ward contact.

And on one account where the email address was changed in Zoom, the Church Meet site lost track of the account and it reverted to Setup Not Complete. They are working on fixing that, but for now I cannot do anything with the account. I cannot remove it, I cannot change it, I cannot help. If that problem got resolved, I would feel better about letting the units change their email addresses.

You mentioned not having access to the calendar function. That would cause me to lean toward letting the units change the email so they could access it. I am not really familiar with that function, but if it is needed and valuable, I can see letting the units have it.

Also, if the email message load from an account becomes excessive, that would be another reason to let them totally take over the account.

I think as things settle out over the next few weeks, I will probably adjust my approach to how the stake administers the account. But it seems the Church still wants them to oversee everything for now. The one-email-account makes it easier for me, but I am not averse to tracking a bunch of email addresses and passwords if there is benefit to the units involved.

[russellhltn]

Also, if the email message load from an account becomes excessive, that would be another reason to let them totally take over the account.

Something you might look into is auto-forwarding rules.

[drepouille]

I'll just use my personal Google calendar. I gave Zoom access to my Google Contacts and Calendar, and I installed the Zoom Client and the Zoom Chrome extension. So Zoom is pretty fat and happy that it has the keys to my kingdom.