conference call systems?

[Heather Kimmel]

Dear Board - I'm trying to set up a conference call service for our upcoming Annual Meeting in October so that members can attend virtually. I've not done this outside of a large standing organization, so I asked him for some assistance. He suggested working with a free service, such as those listed at http://mashable.com/2011/04/17/4-conference-call-services/.

The options provided here are: Rondee, Wiggio, GroupMe, and GoogleVoice. Does anyone have any experience with any of these services? I'm leaning towards GoogleVoice, but only because it is part of the Google suite of products.

What about Skype - is that an option? Thank you for your input!

Cheers - Heather

--
Heather L. Kimmel, PhD
AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow, 2011-2013
Economics, Exposure, and Technology Division, OPPT, OCSPP
US EPA
1201 Constitution Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20004
kimmel....@epa.gov
hlki...@gmail.com
Office: 202-564-1818
TEXT only: 770-843-8482

[Teressa Trusty]

I haven't used any of the services on the mashable site but have used FreeConferenceCall (http://www.freeconferencecall.com/fcc/index.asp?promocode=FCC_PPC_GS_US_EN_343&gclid=CKmZleW867gCFZKi4Aod-iwAbw). 

I have found Skype is a pain to conference multiple people and it has not always worked for me in the past when I used it to conference in students at colleges across the US prior to field courses. 

Regards,

Teressa

[Heather Kimmel]

Thank you for your input, Teressa.  I may have some questions about the logistics of how to use this service after I check out the site, if that's OK with you. I checked with Barry, and he said that the public wi-fi at AAAS is spotty at best, so it sounds like Skype would not be a good option, anyway.

With regard to adding information about the USAID travel insurance to the AAAS health page, I have yet to hear from the person who I thought was in charge. I'll inquire with Barry, as he's usually pretty responsive.

Cheers - Heather