1. Choose meeting rooms with teleconferencing capability.
2. Group hookups take priority over individual hookups.
3. Place calls to all designated numbers before every meeting unless notified otherwise.
4. Ask the receptionists to lift the receiver from the hook in the teleconference room so as to make the connection even if the faculty members at that site have been called from the room or are late due to being caught in traffic, etc. as it can be impossible to get hooked up the call is missed.
5. If more than four sites need to be hooked up, use two consoles and two phone lines. Using five hookups per console often fails.
6. Distribute instructions with all meeting announcements on how to connect (and reconnect should disconnection occur).
a. If in-house lines are used, publicize the cell-phone number of someone who will be in the meeting room throughout the meeting for center people to use should disconnection occur. (Going through the operator takes about half an hour.)
b. Confirm reconnection procedures with outside providers. The codes often fail to work once disconnection occurs.
7. It is helpful if the same cell phone number can be used all year long.
8. On-site speakers need to speak directly into a microphone or speakerphone for center faculty to hear.
9. Except for small groups in which everyone's voice has become familiar, all speakers need to identify themselves by name in order for center faculty to follow the proceedings.
10. Include center participants in all discussions, but particularly in those which primarily affect them. This has frequently not been possible because the steps above were not followed.
11. Ask repeatedly, during all discussions, it center participants have issues, questions or opinions to share. Center people often try to speak but cannot be heard.
12. Solicit and count both voice votes and paper ballots from center participants.
13. Handle anonymous votes anonymously for centers too. At times untenured faculty have had to change their votes because yea and nay totals were requested to save the time sending individual faxes require.
14. Distribute handouts to all centers well before meetings begin.
15. Procedures for contacting secretaries to make and distribute copies need to be developed and followed by meeting chairs, and passed on from one chair to the next. Faxing, copying and distributing copies regularly cause center faculty members to miss 15 or 20 minutes of discussions when faxing is done during meetings.
16. Web-based presentations and email attachments need be checked to be sure they can be read online, downloaded, and printed. They also need to be sent out at least one full day ahead.
17. When small group discussions are used, center faculty from across sites function as a small-group. In order for them to hear each other-- instead of the noise in the meeting room--the phones in the meeting room have to be put on mute. These then need to be taken off mute when the small-group discussion is over so center faculty don't miss the rest of the meeting.
18. Center faculty would appreciate it if meeting chairs would make a point of educating chairs-elect at the end of each year so that the process doesn't have to start from scratch each fall.
19. Perhaps one of the functions of the chairs-elect could be to ensure that the accommodations above are made. They might also be responsible for handling the mute and cell phone.

10/9/02