June,

The Cincinnati Model Investment Club has been using GTM webinar (licensed by
the OKI Tri-State Chapter of BetterInvesting) for several months and we find
it very effective. We use it as a secondary method for partners to attend.
One month we were snowed in and everyone attend via GTM. We have a member
that travels to India occasionally and he attended once form India. It
worked well. Skype may be a source for you also. We have a member that will
be moving out of the state soon and wishes to continue remotely as a member.
We will no doubt adopt this policy.

We have had some learning experiences that include the following:
1. We first started using a single cheap common mic that we found was
picking up unfiltered noise that was annoying to the attendees.
2. We graduated to an Marshal MXL brand uChat mic model AC406. This worked
pretty well, but found the larger our table area, we have 16 members, it was
hard for everyone to assume a habit of talking loud enough.
3. We are now using this mic but have added a multiple mic setup one or our
members had. This I am sure was pretty expensive and I doubt we would have
considered purchasing one of our own. I think we could have trained
ourselves to talk up now we are spoiled.
4. Sometimes, mouse movements and keyboard strikes can be an issue with
wireless equipment. Best use wired or be sure the batteries are fresh.
Weak wireless broadband width and weak computer resources are a problem
sometimes too. A wired connection by work better than wireless.

Good Luck!

Marty Eckerle

-----Original Message-----
From: club_cafe@bivio.com [mailto:club_cafe@bivio.com] On Behalf Of June
Lewis
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2012 9:43 PM
To: club_cafe@bivio.com
Subject: [club_cafe] Using Technology to connect with members

Has anyone drafted a Technology policy on how members that move for example
to another state for part of the year can attend meetings remotely using an
approved method. (For
example: Skype, Go to meetings, Conference calling, etc.)

We have a family investment club that is spread over seven states. We do our meetings online. We started with FuzeMeeting and have recently switched to GoToMeeting.

FuzeMeeting
Pros
Cost was $279/yr
Could handle 25 people
iPad application for FuzeMeeting was excellent. We had a couple people using this and they loved looking at the slides this way and audio both directions was great.
Fuze has a daily rate of $9.95 so a club could do 12 monthly meetings for $120 rather than the full year subscription.

Cons
A bit fiddly to get setup for each person. People do not always understand all the different audio options. Phone via both FuzeOut and FuzeIn (only 90 minutes of free minutes per month...can get pricey after that), Skype and VOiP. Their VOiP is pretty good.

GotoMeeting
Pros
Very easy for people to join and use.
HD Faces means up to 6 members can share their video camera at one time.
Can record meetings if needed.

Cons
Price is a little higher ($349 is what I got it for and is a special price that I think anyone can get if you ask)
GTM only supports 15+1 (although when I told them that Fuze gave me 25 they bumped me to 25+1 for no extra price)
iPad Application for GoToMeeting is not very good especially compared to the Fuze iPad App

Hope this helps.

Paul Madison
Paul's Investment Group