Alive Alone began hosting a monthly Open Zoom session for all current members. These sessions have been facilitated by Alive Alone board members and are scheduled for 90-minutes.The Zoom meeting link is sent via an email service, called Constant Contact, to everyone with an email address on file.

The Open Zoom sessions have been scheduled for the 10th of each month. We plan to continue hosting the sessions on the tenth day of the month as different days of the week will give members an opportunity to participate. When the 10th falls on a weeknight, the Zoom session will start at 8PM Eastern/ 5PM Pacific.If the 10th falls on a Saturday or Sunday, the start time will be 4PM Eastern/1PM Pacific.

PLEASE NOTE: It is permissible to join an open Zoom and just listen. No one is under any obligation to talk.

Past Open Zoom Sessions have included discussions on summer vacation memories, how the “back to school” time can be an emotional minefield, reduced daylight hours and the impact on mood, as well as many other topics. The session opens with a brief introduction from the facilitator, who will also go over basic Zoom etiquette. Alive Alone pays almost $500 per year for our Zoom licenses, and that is with a nonprofit discount! We limit attendees to current members of Alive Alone. The facilitator and their technical support person do this by checking names as participants join, however in many cases we can only see a generic name, such as “Kindle Fire”. We also see names listed like “Kyle’s Mom”; in which case I can usually look up by your child’s name. Please include your name as well. Here is an article on how to change your display name.

Please consider something like “Kyle’s Father – Roger” or something similar.

In the Zoom app, there is a “raise hand” tool. One of the technical support person’s main tasks is to watch for a participant “raising their hand” and to call on them for the facilitator. You can also use the chat box to ask a question.

In the meeting/webinar controls, click Reactions, then click Raise Hand.
The host will be notified that you’ve raised your hand.
If the host allows you to talk, you may be prompted to unmute yourself. While unmuted, your profile picture and name are displayed to the host and panelists. Only your name is displayed to other attendees.

In the meeting/webinar controls, click Lower Hand to lower it, if needed.This will not mute yourself if you are unmuted.

Note: Users can also raise or lower their hand with the Alt+Y (Windows) or Option+Y (macOS) keyboard shortcuts.