Using Archived AOS Webinars for Your Orchid Society’s Meeting

Prepared by Harry GallisTriangle Orchid Society

Durham, NC

Preparation

• Since all of us meet in varied venues, the first issue is to determine if your meeting site will support the ‘re-broadcast’ of a webinar.

• I am not an expert in this except that I have done it once and bragged that it worked for me! (an ‘expert’ is someone from out of town with slides!)

• What I think the requirements are:

Site Requirements• I am assuming that all of you use digital data projectors

and computers to project your speakers’ programs. • This is a requirement unless you have a very small group

that can gather around a computer monitor.• In our case, we have a person at our site that is able to

help set up computers, the projector and the mike.• I was prepared to turn the sound up on the computer

but it works much better if the computer can plug into the PA system at your site.

• Our set up technical person did that for me but I had a problem at the start and had to reboot the computer.

MOST IMPORTANT: Have a backup plan!

• Our society had planned to use a program from AOS or Orchid Digest for our January meeting, so we already had that program available and ready to go.

• Hopefully your society has a member or the site has someone who is a ‘techie’.

• There are too many technical issues that could derail your plans – the last thing you (and I) want is a room full of disgruntled people.

• So be ready with the backup so you and I don’t get fed to the sharks!

What could go wrong? Anything!

• Poor internet connection and constant ‘buffering’

• AOS site is down• The system just doesn’t work, and who

knows?• There is a technical issue at your site• There is some sort of problem with a media

player on your computer

Set up

• The first thing I would do is a trial run with the computer you plan to use. I used my laptop so I had tried it out at home and spoken to our program chair about some preliminary set up issues.

• I would recommend a trial run well before your meeting.

• The following few slides are screen captures from the AOS website of the steps that I went through.

Procedure 1 – Login to the AOS website using your user name and password

Procedure 2: Click on the Webinars tab

Procedure 3 – Look on the right side of the page for Recorded Webinars and select the one you want –

note: it will take several days after a program is broadcast for it to be archived.

Follow the instructions after ‘click here’

Procedure 4 – Start the program

Procedure 5 – In this program, Pests and Diseases, I needed to move the ‘progress bar’

(arrow) forward a bit for the sound to start