Moving Day - Phoenix Idea Exchange - Please read

[Jim]

Members of the Phoenix Idea Exchange google group:

At the Zoom meeting of the Virtual Idea Exchange (VIE) this past Sunday ways to streamline getting notifications out and making online discussions more organized were discussed.  Warren, the creator of the Idea Exchange of Phoenix Google Group, (if you are getting this email you are a member of the original Idea Exchange of Phoenix) explained the genesis of the group and the problems he has recently had administering it.   His experience has been that changes Google has made to how groups work continue to frustrate his ability to administer the group and in particular add people to it as new people ask to join.

Because of those issues I created an additional group, called the virtual-id...@googlegroups.com to facilitate sending notifications to new people so everyone could easily be sent notifications and participate in any online email discussions that might be generated.  Many of the Original group members asked to be added to that group and have been.

Warren, myself, and the attendees at last night's Zoom agree the simplest thing to do at this point is ask those of you who are on the Idea Exchange of Phoenix Group but not on the new VIE group to join the new VIE group if you have not already done so.  There is no philosophical or operational difference between the two groups; the only difference is the membership of each.  Both are simply a way to facilitate discussion and invitations to people interested in what has become known locally as "The Idea Exchange".  Up until Covid it was a monthly in person meeting hosted by Mike Johnson.  With Covid shutting down in person meetings the ZOOM Virtual Idea Exchange was created to keep it going.

What you need to do, if anything....

- If you are already on the new VIE group you don't need to do anything.  If you have been getting emails FROM virtual-idea-exchange you are on it.

- If you are not on the new VIE and you wish to be added all you need to do is reply to this message and let me know you want to be added AND tell me your email address.  Your reply will go to the entire group.  If you wish to reply only to me just send an email directly to me at jimntempe@yahoo letting me know to add you.

- If you don't wish to be added to the new group you don't need to do anything.  You will no longer get notifications from me of the ZOOM meetings via a Google Group email distribution.  The notification and link to join will still be up on the Mensa Calendar.  In the past Mike Johnson forwarded the meeting info to his Pensa Email List so if you are on the Pensa list you will see it there if he continues to do so.  Of course if you are not a member of the VIE you would not see any discussions on the VIE list.  The old group would continue to exist and you would be free to keep using it unless Warren decides differently.

Any questions email me jimn...@yahoo.com.

Jim Delton ¨¨°°¨°°¨Ô¨°°¨°°¨¨ 

[John Pribula]

Jim what is your email address?  When you click on it  it doesn't go anywhere.?

and WTF does this mean in your signature:  ¨°°¨°°¨Ô¨°°¨°°¨¨ /

[John Pribula]

So what does this mean?  There are two separate Idea Exchanges?  

[John Pribula]

Does the Zoom meeting for the Idea Exchange work only at an appointed time?  Are there messages or chats communicating thoughts and comments after the meeting?

Having never participated in  the Virtual meeting  I have no idea how the zoom exchange works.

Jim, would you clarify how the Zoom meeting works and what is the complete and formal name of group?

[Denis]

Jim's logo is obviously a B-52 bomber, but Jim will have to explain his connection to the SAC program.   D

On Tuesday, May 11, 2021 at 4:23:04 AM UTC-7 John Pribula wrote:

[Jim Delton]

Perhaps the simplest way to explain this is chronologically.

From the past to the present...

- Way back when.  Mike Johnson started the Idea Exchange (IE) which was an in-person meeting at a restaurant.  The meeting was publicized via Mensa Calendar and Mike's PENSA email list.

- Some of the people who regularly attended the IE suggested an online discussion group be created that people could join if they wished to have discussions "on line" between the in person IE meetings.

- Warren created such a group (a Google Group) several years ago and called it the Phoenix Idea Exchange (PIE). 

- About 2 years ago Warren started experiencing difficulties adding people to the group.  As a result some IE "regulars" were only able to sporadically see the PIE postings (if they had been CC'd) and found it was difficult if not impossible to respond to PIE postings. 

- About 1 year ago COVID hit and all in-person meetings stopped so no more in-person IE.

- Several of the regulars from the IE said they wished there was a way to hold "virtual" IE meetings.  Many people had started doing all sorts of meeting via Zoom.  That seemed like an easy way for former IE participants to do a "virtual IE meeting"  so I opened a Zoom account and created what has come to be called the Virtual Idea Exchange (VIE).

- The VIE was started and publicized and about a dozen people typically participated each Sunday at 6 PM via Zoom.

- About 1/3 of the rotating cast of participants at the VIE were people who were on Warren's PIE group.  Several people asked if I would send out reminder notices so I send a reminder notice each week a couple days prior to each meeting.  Because only 1/3 of the regulars were on PIE it was not possible to notify everyone by simply sending it to the PIE group.  To notify the rest of the regulars I had to send to their individual emails.  The result was any budding discussion became very disjointed depending on how people REPLIED to that notice or a discussants comment.

- Since Warren's problems with his PIE administration were made even worse due to Covid preventing his use of library computers the only way to get everyone (the original PIE people and the new VIE people) into one email group was to start a new Google Group.  The new Group was called the Virtual Idea Exchange - Google Group (VIE-GG).  Several notices were sent to all members of PIE to let them know that VIE-GG was going to be how discussions among the VIE participants would be facilitated and that it would be how I would send out the weekly reminder.  The Official Mensa Calendar contains the full info on the VIE and the link to join it.  Also Mike Johnson often broadcasts the info to his PENSA list.

- a month or so ago at the beginning of a VIE, Warren, myself, and the attending participants discussed all of this and Warren confirmed his ongoing issues trying to maintain the PIE and his desire to see PIE members join the VIE-GG to simplify the whole thing as outlined here.

- The VIE-GG is open to anyone to join, the easiest way to join is to send me an email and I will put the requestor into the group.  It can also be found in the Google Groups directory and a request to join can be sent from there.  The OFFICIAL NAME On groups.google is "virtual idea exchange".  VIE-GG Members will see any discussions posted by any of the other members and will get the weekly notification of the Sunday Meeting.

With that preface let me answer your specific questions...

- The Zoom meeting is at 6PM on Sundays.  Those who are members of the VIE-GG can use that group to post or discuss anything they wish at any time.  That does occur from time to time.  All of the messages are viewable by members of the group.  There are no hidden discussions.  The messages are not viewable by those who have not joined the group.

To use Zoom you need at minimum a computer or cell phone with an internet browser.  It has better functionality if you install the Zoom client on your cell phone or computer.  Overall a computer works better because you have a screen big enough to see everyone at the same time. You need to have both video and audio to participate.  THere is much detail on all this at https://www.zoom.us/

If you want to experiment to see if you can join the VIE you can join it at any time.  Of course if it's not 6 pm on sunday you'll be the only one there but you can join it to see if your setup is working.

The link to join is below.. copy and paste it into your browser..

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/226759604?pwd=Z1QrSHRFTDNiUkZpc3JiUFNZM3hwdz09

Jim Delton ¨¨°°¨°°¨Ô¨°°¨°°¨¨ 

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