Group Leaders Bulletin January 2026
Late arrival
Our first team meeting since December was last Wednesday, so there was nothing to report, apart from sending out the IGO Zoom calendar to group leaders who use the IGO Zoom account. Hence the late arrival!
IGO Fair
The IGO fair will be held on the 11th and 12th of February. Thanks to group leaders who have offered sessions – all the slots are now filled. Alison has sent out details.
Each session will be available via the u3a Online Learning Events page and will be booked by Eventbrite, but the title will have a different colour to mark the session as different from our usual events. Your group members will not have to book via Eventbrite, but can be sent the Zoom link to the session, which they are also free to share with friends and family.
Sound problems on Zoom
We have received a few inquiries regarding problems sharing sound over Zoom. They appear to apply to Windows 11 computers with certain sound drivers (e.g. Realtek), usually when playing music. This could apply to YouTube videos, music notation software, or .mp3 or .mp4 files being run.
There are two separate effects.
1. The Zoom host attempts to play music software on their computer, and neither they nor anyone else in the session can hear the music. If you are experiencing this issue, please contact us for possible solutions.
2. One or two people who have joined the session may hear the session leader speaking but not hear the music. Asking members to enter the meeting via a web browser rather than via the app may help. Members could also try turning off audio enhancements for their Realtek speakers in their Windows settings. To do this, go to: ‘settings’ > ‘sound’ > ‘Realtek Speakers’. Scroll down to ‘Advanced settings’ and turn off ‘Audio Enhancements’. These enhancements screen out background noise so that people speaking can be heard more clearly. Unfortunately, they also filter out any music.
If you have encountered issues in your meeting when sharing music, please let us know. Information about the specific situation you encountered would be very useful. If you've solved the problems, please do let us know how.
If you would like basic advice about sharing sound in IGO meetings, you can find a help document here.
If you want to play live music as a Zoom meeting, you need to change to audio settings to "Original Sound for Musicians". Contact us if you have problems with this.
Using AI on Zoom
AI is now an important feature in Zoom. Many of our members and group leaders expressed alarm at its unwanted intrusion into their Zoom meetings last year so we decided to turn off all AI functions in our IGO Zoom accounts.
However, AI can be a useful tool in many ways. I find it produces excellent meeting summaries – effectively minutes – which are very handy for remembering what I, and other people have undertaken to do for the next meeting. We have now set up a fourth IGO Zoom account, and have decided that we will keep AI active on this account so that any group who would like to use AI in their Zoom meetings will be able to do so.
If you would like to have AI available at your meetings, let me know, and I will book a slot on this account. It will mean that your meetings will have a new link, but this will be a one-off change. It will then be up to you to manage what AI does or doesn’t do and let your members know what is being done. Let’s see how it works!
Updating group pages on Beacon and on the website
You should update the information on the Beacon details page yourself.
If you want to change your group's webpage entry, you should submit the Group Description Form.
Duration of Zoom Meetings
The Zoom link which Zoom generates and I send out to group leaders does not, annoyingly, list the duration of the Zoom meeting. This is, however, shown on the IGO Zoom calendar which I send out each month – see below.
Please do NOT keep your Zoom meeting going longer that the slot booked. Zoom does not terminate meetings, which means that if another meeting is booked after your meeting and you have kept going, it will be unable to start. This has happened a few times in the last year. If you want a longer slot, let me know and I will book it for you.
Calendars
Beacon calendar
The Beacon calendar is generated by Beacon from the information which has been entered into the Beacon group page under the Schedule tab. This information has to be entered manually by the group leader or someone else with admin access to Beacon. I have done this in the past, but don’t do it any more, unless I am asked by a group leader to do so. You will find information about how to do this here.
This calendar can be viewed on the Members Portal by all IGO members, and it is helpful to them (and therefore to you) in checking when their group meetings are happening. It is up to you as a group leader to decide whether or not to add information to the calendar. If you have done so, it is a good idea to check your group calendar from time to time to ensure that it is correct. If you spot errors in another group’s calendar, let me know, and I will attempt to get it rectified.
January IGO Zoom calendar
This calendar shows all the meetings which have been booked on an IGO Zoom account in December. It is helpful to yourself and to me if you check that your meeting(s) is/are listed here with the correct date, time and Meeting ID. If you find an error, let me know ASAP, and I will correct it.
I have not cancelled meetings on and around Christmas day, but you don’t need to hold them!! An entry in the Beacon calendar (above) would be helpful to members if December meetings are cancelled.
Generic Zoom calendar
The Generic Zoom calendar shows which slots are booked to each of our Zoom accounts. These are listed by 1st Monday, 3rd Tuesday etc.
This calendar should not concern you unless:
- You want to change the time or day of your group meetings, and need to check when there are free slots, or
- You do not currently use an IGO Zoom account and want to see if there is a free slot at the right time.
Note that I add 30 minutes to the length of each meeting in this calendar as I try to allow 15 minutes grace for meetings to end and up to 15 minutes early entry.
Note also that Zoom accounts 2 and 3 allow two meetings to run at the same time!
If you do go through this calendar and find errors or omissions, please let me know.
Thank you
To all our group leaders for your sterling work.
Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!
From Catherine, on behalf of the IGO team interestgroupsonline@u3a.
You can contact anyone on the team using this email