Dear Chapman University faculty and staff,

As the semester starts, all of us will be utilizing online meeting tools more often than before, and it is essential to have a contingency plan in case there are disruptions in service. As great as online meeting providers are, sometimes they may encounter technical issues that will interrupt their services and create outages.

I would like to share some recommendations with you to help overcome potential challenges:

  1. Create your meetings on multiple platforms, so in case there are outages, you will be able to switch from one platform to another quickly.
  2. Give everyone a few minutes to access your online meeting. Remember internet connectivity speeds vary depending on location, time, internet provider, etc.
  3. If you are planning to share links and documents with your participants during the meeting, consider sharing the content with them ahead of time.
  4. Tell your meeting participants, in the event that you do not show up at the appointed meeting time, to check their email for further instructions.
  5. Keep a list of your online meeting participants and their e-mails handy in case you have to send a new meeting invitation to them on short notice.
  6. Don’t overwhelm your meeting participants with information. Share your contingency plan in one e-mail, or have a saved draft ready for when you need to use it.

Thank you.