Click Here for a Zoom Webinar Graphical "Cheat Sheet" on How to be Recognized by the Chair 

The 2022 Central Texas Annual Conference meeting will again be presented in a hybrid (in-person and online) format. The online participants will access the meeting via a live Zoom webinar. The online or Zoom processes and procedures will be very similar to those used in the past two (2020 and 2021) Central Texas Annual Conference meetings, though a few tweaks and improvements have been implemented based on feedback received in the post-conference surveys. Please see the following important information and instructions.

Make sure you have registered for Annual Conference.
  • All Lay and Clergy members to the 2022 Central Texas Annual Conference must register in order to actively participate (vote, have voice, etc.) in the meeting. Please visit ctcumc.org/ac22-registration for more info and/or to register.
Please complete your registration and activate your personal Zoom Webinar link.
  • All members to Annual Conference with voice and voting rights who have registered for AC22 will receive an email asking them to complete their registration by filling out a very brief Zoom registration. If you registered for AC22 as a Virtual/Online only participant and have not received your email requesting you to complete the Zoom registration by close of business Friday, June 10, contact your District Administrator immediately. Please note, you cannot access the AC22 Zoom link, which provides you voice and voting rights, until you complete the Zoom activation registration link.
  • Once you submit the Zoom registration, you'll receive an email to the address entered in the registration with your link. This is the link you'll use for all of the business sessions of AC22. If you misplace your Zoom link, please contact your District Administrator as soon as possible to avoid delays in joining the meeting.

  • Each registered clergy and lay member will have a unique link. As such, each clergy and lay member must be on a separate device to actively participate in the meeting (i.e. one vote per device). We recommend using a computer (desktop or laptop) or a tablet. You may access the meeting on a mobile phone, but the voting application is more difficult to navigate on a phone.

Zoom Webinar Distinctions

While most are now quite familiar with Zoom meetings, there are a few distinct differences with the Zoom Webinar experience.

  • Participants in the meeting will not be able to see each other. The only persons you’ll see on the screen are those who are presenting or have been recognized by the chair to speak “from the floor” during the meeting (aka “panelists”). Bishop Saenz and Darlene Alfred, Conference Lay Leader, will be visible throughout the entire meeting, all other panelists will join the meeting as scheduled or as needed. All of the AC22 presentations are scheduled to be presented live from First UMC Fort Worth.

  • Making/Seconding a motion, Requests to be recognized, Making a Point of Order, Questions, tech support, etc. will all be done through the Q&A tab. Because participants are not visible, Bishop Saenz cannot see nor hear you. As such, conference members will use the Q&A function at the bottom of the webinar screen to request to be recognized in order to make a motion, offer an amendment to a motion, call the question, make a point of order, etc. More details on this process are below (see How to be Recognized by the Chair below). Please do not use the Q&A to make comments that do not require the attention of the chair or to chat with your friends and colleagues.

  • The chat feature will be active during this meeting. However, chat will NOT be regularly monitored by the conference staff or AC22 production team. If you wish to be recognized by the chair, have a question or need technical support, you must use the Q&A function (see bullet above).

The Agenda

  • The meeting will follow the agenda as listed in the Preliminary Report as closely as possible. The agenda begins on page 12 of the report.

  • Times listed in the agenda are approximate and subject to change. We will try to move through the agenda as efficiently as possible, so at times we may be ahead of schedule, and the possibility exists that we may lag behind the stated times. Bishop Saenz will not gavel the meeting closed until all the required business of the conference has been concluded.

How to be recognized by the chair (please click here for a downloadable graphic guide)

  • If you’d like to be recognized by the chair to make a motion, call the question, speak to or against a motion, make an amendment, make a point of order etc., you will need to identify why you wish to be recognized (Make a Motion, Call the Question, Offer an Amendment, Request to Speak, Speech For, Speech Against, etc.) in the Q&A tool. You will also need to enter your name, church, district and status (clergy or laity). Please make sure you are using the Q&A and not Chat as Chat will not be monitored for requests of the chair or tech support.

  • We will be following our Guiding Principles and Best Practices and Roberts Rules of Order. Requests to be recognized will be handled as we would if we were in person, so consider entering your request in the Q&A like walking up to one of the mics in the room at an in-person meeting.

  • Bishop Saenz will be notified of all properly formatted requests in the order in which they are received. Requests entered without the proper info (see first bullet in this section above), will not be sent to the chair. Bishop Saenz will do his best to recognize requests in the order they appear - both for online participants as well as those attending in-person.

  • When making a request in the Q&A, make sure to include the nature of your request – make a motion, amend a motion, speak FOR or AGAINST a motion, etc. – your first and last name and your church and district.

  • We will follow our long-standing practice of three speeches for and three against with a time limit of three minutes per.

  • When you are recognized, you will be temporarily made into a panelist, which means you’ll be seen and heard by those participating in the meeting on the Webinar and those viewing via live webcast. Please, make sure that you are as well-lit as possible – in other words not in a dark room or standing in front of a bright window – and speak clearly and loudly.

    • When you are made a panelist, you will be temporarily logged out of the meeting as a participant. This means that you’ll “go dark” from the meeting for a few moments. This will happen automatically so please don’t click on anything or try to log out and log back into the meeting. This process usually takes around 10 seconds. The same thing will happen in reverse when you are returned to the meeting as a participant.

How we will vote online

  • Voting will be done by the Zoom Polling feature.

  • Once Bishop Saenz opens the vote, a voting or polling pop up will appear on your screen. To cast your vote, click on either the yes, no or abstain button and hit submit.

  • You will have 60 seconds to cast your vote in most circumstances. Bishop Saenz may cut the time short or extend it a bit if necessary.

    • Online poll results will not be shown on the screen but are recorded and available upon request.

  • The Online vote will be added to those voting in person. Members to Annual Conference participating in person will have their vote counted in the room by Conference Tellers. Bishop Saenz will announce the final, combined totals of the online and in-person vote.

  • Please note that there is only one vote allowed per login. This is why everyone participating virtually had to register for the Zoom meeting and needs to be on a separate device. If you and your family member/friend are both conference members with voting rights and in the same room and viewing the meeting through the same computer, you are only going to be able to cast one ballot. Each clergy and lay member of the Conference needs to be on a separate device to vote (pcs or tablets are recommended vs. a mobile phone for voting).

Where to find meeting materials
Live Stream

The conference is being made available via live webcast for guests and visitors. Only lay and clergy members with voice and/or voting rights will participate via the live Zoom webinar. The livestream can be viewed on our conference website, ctcumc.org/ac22-live and on the conference Facebook page facebook.com/ctcumc.

Tech Support

  • If you experience any difficulties with logging into the meeting, or issues with audio or video, first try logging out of the meeting and then logging back in. This fixes approximately 90 percent of Zoom hiccups. It may be necessary to turn your system off and back on again before logging back in.

  • Please have as few other programs or web browser windows open as possible as too many other programs running will likely slow things down or cause interruptions in the Webinar.

  • If you need tech support during the meeting, send a request through the Q&A feature as the tech team will be watching the Q&A throughout the meeting to answer questions and help with any tech issues they can. You can also send an email to bradleyalexander@ctcumc.org and/or calvinscott@ctcumc.org

 
We look forward to being with you online this June 13-14.

Annual Conference 2022