Skype Working Well!

For the first time in a NAPS meeting, we used Skype to link to a team member who lives in another city, and the process was a rousing success. Friday night's meeting (11/4/2011) in the Civil Defense headquarters conference room was attended not just by those physically in the building!

Lauren, our investigator in Jackson, Mississippi, also attended via Skype. As with all our first time "adventures," we are looking for ways to improve the mechanics of it, but having our distant investigator "at the meeting" on video and audio was awesome! This is an effective means for our investigators who are separated from us to feel much more a part and not be as isolated as they have been in the past. It keeps them up to date on latest news, includes them in on team decisions, input on setting dates for investigations and team meetings, and all the while they can see and be seen on the screen. It's fun to use technology that works to connect us in ways we never had before! I would definitely suggest teams use Skype as a means to conduct their meetings when they have people scattered and can't easily attend meetings, especially with gas prices as high as they are. One thing however that does need to be mentioned...it certainly helps to have a very good Internet connection speed on both ends.