Information on Online Meetings

User Rating:  / 0

Parent Category: Parish Council

Category: Information and Updates

Last Updated on Thursday, 16 July 2020 12:42

Published on Wednesday, 15 July 2020 17:24

Written by Parish Clerk

Hits: 202

There may be occasions when physical meetings cannot be held, and a virtual online meeting held in its place.   A good example of this was during the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic which caused many real-life physical meetings to be cancelled.

In order that Local Government can still function, decisions still need to be made and the public have a legal right to access any meeting in which decisions are made.

At present, Bramley Parish Council are utilising the Zoom (https://zoom.us/) platform for online meetings.

You do not need to create a Zoom account and use of Zoom to view any Parish Council meeting is 100% free.  You will never need to pay to access any of Bramley Parish Council Meetings.

All that is required to participate in a Bramley Parish Council Meeting is the Meeting ID and a password.
Sometimes, a specially created Zoom Link is used that contains the Meeting ID and Password.

To reduce abuse of online meetings, Bramley Parish Council will not publish the Meeting ID’s and Password details in the public domain.   When agendas of proposed meetings are published, any online meetings will have a link to a meeting request form.

The meeting request form will ask for the user’s full name, email address and postcode.  This information is used to provide a basic filter against misuse of the online meeting.  You do not have to be within a postcode of the Bramley Parish to participate, but we may contact those that specify certain information to determine if they are a legitimate meeting participant.

Joining an online meeting

If this is the first time you have joined an online Zoom meeting, you are advised to visit https://zoom.us/download and install the Zoom client of your choice.   

Zoom is available for Desktops/Laptops, Mobile phones, Tablets (Android and iOs/Apple) or within your web browser.  

If you do not pre-install Zoom prior to joining a meeting, you maybe delayed whilst any software is installed, and you will join the meeting late.

Best practice is to join the meeting 5 minutes before the actual start of the meeting.  You will be held in a virtual waiting room and at the start of the online meeting, added into the main meeting room. 

Requests to join the meeting after the meeting has started may be delayed until a suitable point within the meeting is reached.  

Full details of the meeting will be emailed to you prior to the meeting if you have completed the online meeting request form.   The normal link to join the meeting will be https://zoom.us/join

You do not need to set-up a Zoom account or have an existing Zoom account to participate in the meeting.  You do not need to pay any fees to use Zoom.

Data Retention

Just as if you were attending a physical meeting, if you are merely attending as a viewer and take no part in the meeting itself, you will be listed anonymously in a count of attendees to the meeting.  Any data collected in the meeting request will not be stored and deleted no more than 28 days after the meeting date.

If you have requested to speak, your name and perhaps contact details will be recorded within the minutes of the meeting as they would have been during a physical meeting.  Your data will be held in accordance with the Bramley Parish Council Data Handling practices, details of which can be found at: https://bramleypc.co.uk/en/legislation-and-policies