Interest Groups Online now owns a Padlet account which Group Leaders can use to create their own group noticeboards. Padlets are designed to be colourful and visually appealing and enable both group leaders to post resources, links, videos etc. Group Leaders can also decide to allow members to comment on these resources and to add their own posts

Using Padlets can help you to cut down the amount of time you spend sharing resources by email and they can keep a history of meeting content so that members can quickly catch up if they miss a meeting.

If you would like to use Padlet for your group(s), please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. who will be able to add you to the account and can give some guidance about setting up your first Padlet.  

We have created an example Padlet so you can get an idea of how it looks.  It has:

• information about using Padlet,
• some of the IGO guidance documents from the website,
• examples of the information which some groups put on their existing Padlets.
  

You can access this here: IGO Sample Padlet

Some of our members expressed concern that after an IGO Zoom meeting, a message was flagged up saying that the meeting had been transcribed. There is an AI companion tool in Zoom which can do this but it does not do it automatically – it has to be set up.  It is not clear how this happened at this meeting – possibly an error.  For the moment, we have disabled AI companion in all IGO Zoom accounts until we have a clearer idea how it works so we can provide guidance to group leaders about using it – or not.

Some of you may know something about the AI companion, and may even have used it and we welcome any information and views from you about this. Also, if you do use AI during your Zoom meeting, you should let the members know you are doing so.  If someone objects, we recommend that you stop using it for now.

AI is going to be playing an increasing important role in our lives, some beneficial, some not, and where it is helpful, we should embrace it, but avoid it when it is not.

You may have noticed that in the Beacon Groups section, Zoom meetings have various labels added

These refer to the account used by the group: ZOOM Acc1, ZOOM Acc2 and ZOOM Acc3 specify which of the three IGO Zoom accounts is used,  ZOOM EXT means the account used is an external one, usually the group leader’s account. 

It is useful to us when booking or re-booking Zoom meetings but it is not something that affects either group leaders or members.

This is attached.  It shows all the Zoom bookings for February and March.  If you are not sure that your Zoom meeting  has been booked, please check this first before contacting me.

All existing IGO Zoom meetings have been booked until the end of June.  Most have been booked until the end of December.

The Beacon meetings calendar for February is attached.  Members can view this from the Beacon Members Portal. Please note that entries here do not appear automatically – they have to be generated using the “Schedule” tab on Beacon.

This is attached. Each day is split into three cells which have different colours.  This is to show which groups are assigned to which of our three Zoom accounts to make it easier to check for free slots – it 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 do not currently use an IGO Zoom account and want to see when you could have a slot.  Note that the labels are not the same as those used on Beacon.

Please also note that I compile the calendar “by hand” from the Zoom accounts so it may not always be accurate. If you notice any errors, please let me know. The calendar can also change from day to day as new groups start up or groups change their slots.

A reminder that when someone joins a group on Beacon, they are not automatically admitted to the group even when the group has vacancies. You will get an email telling you they have joined and that there are vacancies, and you should admit them to the group on Beacon, and send them a welcome email.  New members, in particular, get anxious if they do not hear anything soon after they join.  I do point out to them that group leaders are volunteers

You can alter the maximum number allowed in your group on Beacon.

Each grup webpage indicates whether the group had vacancies, or has a waiting list.  This information has to be transferred manually from Beacon to the website so the website information is not always up-to-date.  We normally do an update three times a week, but if you notice an error which persist for more than a few days, let us know

It is not always clear to new group leaders they have to use a different link to access Beacon as a group leader, and to access it as a member.  Here are the two links:

Beacon Administration

Beacon Members Portal

Also note that the administration address is the same for all u3as, so you need to select “Interest Groups Online” from the drop-down menu when you are accessing it. Each u3a has its own Members Portal.

To all our group leaders for your sterling work! 

From Catherine, on behalf of the IGO team
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You can contact anyone on the team using this email

• Beacon Calendar 25-02;
• Google Calendar 25-02;
• IGO Zoom generic calendar Feb 25.