Creating an additional Zoom Account

Our stake is taking full advantage of the Zoom accounts for each ward in the stake along with having a stake Zoom account. However, the Stake Family History Center likes to have classes a couple of times per month that they Zoom out to members that can't join in person. Each time they want to do this, I have to create a link in our stake account and then physically be there to log them into the account so we don't have to share the password with them. Is there a way to get an additional Zoom account for the Family History Center or does anyone have any suggestions on how to get them something they can use to broadcast out classes so I don't have to be there to each of them and without sharing the login info for the stake account?

Look into the "host key". You can set up the class and give them the host key. With that, they can administer the class without knowing the login.

There are some settings that have to be set right for it to work - for example, you have to allow people to join before the host.

russellhltn wrote: Sun May 15, 2022 6:35 pm Look into the "host key". You can set up the class and give them the host key. With that, they can administer the class without knowing the login.

There are some settings that have to be set right for it to work - for example, you have to allow people to join before the host.

This is the way.

Host Key is great, except only one meeting can occur at a time on each account. We are in the Caribbean and our District covers hundreds of islands so all our district meetings and many branch meeting are all on Zoom and we need an additional district zoom account as seminaries and institute meetings occur nightly during the week and as a district presidency we need to also conduct district meetings, interviews, etc. When my request to add a billable Zoom account says "waiting Church review" what does that mean?

jamesdavidhoneycutt wrote: Sun May 19, 2024 8:18 am Host Key is great, except only one meeting can occur at a time on each account. We are in the Caribbean and our District covers hundreds of islands so all our district meetings and many branch meeting are all on Zoom and we need an additional district zoom account as seminaries and institute meetings occur nightly during the week and as a district presidency we need to also conduct district meetings, interviews, etc. When my request to add a billable Zoom account says "waiting Church review" what does that mean?

You might get more traction with resolving this issue if your District President brings it up with the Mission President who can raise it through the leadership chain. It sounds like you are in a specialized situation that may not be readily apparent to those who are used to the norm. Also keep in mind that there may be some direction to adjust your schedules to meet what the church is willing to provide - just because we currently do something a certain way doesn't mean that is the only way it can be effectively done. Being patient, open, and flexible might result in a workable solution more quickly.

I agree with pursuing the "leadership chain" approach. It seems like your virtual meeting requirements are a "pre-existing condition", and not related to any pandemic-specific Zoom needs. And I would expect there are a fair number of districts worldwide that fall into a similar category. Hopefully your district president can share this context with the mission president, so that when he then shares it upwards, it has the appropriate context that might generate a good response.

jamesdavidhoneycutt wrote: Sun May 19, 2024 8:18 am we need an additional district zoom account as seminaries and institute meetings occur nightly during the week

I would suggest working on getting the seminaries and institute their own Zoom account. I don't know, but it's possible they qualify for their own but someone decided it was easier to let them use the mission account.

Just a couple of observations from afar.

1. When the church Zoom accounts were first released to units they said that our license allowed 2 simultaneous meetings or 1 webinar. You can do two meetings at once. It just requires some careful coordination. When we had an EQ and RS meeting we would have the RS meeting go first, someone would join, and we would promote them to host. The unit account could then exit and start up the second meeting and again pass the host baton if needed.

2. The license the church obtained allows sharing of the Zoom account credentials within the unit. You can share the account with others, in fact this should be encouraged to more effectively do the work. Our seminary instructors all have access to the ward Zoom accounts since Seminary for our stake doesn't occur during the same time period as other meetings. Tell them the username and password.

3. When we setup the Zoom accounts we took the following actions. I setup an email address for each unit that would have a Zoom account. As STS I retained the password for all these accounts. I then signed up for the Zoom accounts using these email accounts and created a Zoom password that is different. This Zoom username (email address) and Zoom password can then be shared with leadership. The password for the email account is never shared. If I have a problem with the Zoom password being used inappropriately (which has never happened for our stake) then I can just change it since I have the email account and distribute the new Zoom password.

4. If this still doesn't have enough capacity (our stake has 9 units * 2 meetings per unit = 18 simultaneous meetings) then you can also use breakout rooms to create even more meetings/interviews all happening at the same time. The Zoom website states that each meeting can have up to 100 breakout rooms. For our stake this would scale up to 1800 separate interviews/meetings. If you need to you can have an opening exercise where everyone joins the meeting and the goes to their own breakout room.

For our Stake, we have plenty of licenses available.

Some ward/stakes use the Host Key instead of passing out the login.

With the host key, a "regular user" can join and then get host rights. It does require setting up the meeting so that people can join just before the event and not have to wait for the host.