OPSEU's first webconference

OPSEU's Provincial Young Workers Committee held its first webconference on Monday to kick off the union's pilot webconference project. Committee members using webcams and headsets participated in a successful, full day business meeting from the following locations:

• Kenora membership centre (Cassiey Moeller)
  
• Sudbury (Jennifer Giroux)
  
• Peterborough Regional office (Claire Rowett)
  
• Windsor (Elizabeth Ha)
• Port Hope (Sean Platt)
  
• Ottawa (Kelly McInnes)

Head office was set up using the large screen monitor from its Polycom videoconferencing system and a special desk speaker/microphone to allow more than one person to participate from the same computer. Krista Maracle & Yvonne Bobb are shown below in OPSEU's theatre.


OPSEU has gone with WiredRed's E-pop product for our pilot. This allows participants to not only hear and see each other, but to share documents, web browsers and other applications.

There was only one technical glitch which was related to bandwidth at head office which periodically hampered communications to and from head office. We're working on this and confident that it can be overcome shortly.

The next pilot is scheduled for Friday with the Provincial Human Rights Committee. OPSEU's Executive Committee (Officers) will be holding a webconference business meeting on January 8, 2009. Some OPSEU staff are also participating in the project which runs until the end of January. If you would like to participate in the pilot, please contact me (Gary Shaul) by email or call 416-443-8888 x 8723.