Teleconferencing - The Original Social Media Tool

Dear Two Rivers Conferencing,

I had the occasion to recently use my Two Rivers automated audio conferencing service for a family teleconference call that was very different from my typical calls with partners and clients. I'm not sure how often your services are used for similar types of calls, but I thought you might be interested in hearing about it.

My elderly father-in-law recently experienced a health problem that precipitated his need to consider moving from his private home into a senior living facility. My wife's family was of course, very concerned and because they all live in different parts of the country, I suggested we have a teleconference to give everyone a chance to get together at the same time and share their thoughts, concerns and ideas.

Everyone agreed, so on a recent Sunday morning, my wife's five siblings, three sisters and two brothers, and all of their spouses joined a teleconference call that I hosted with my TRC automated conferencing service. The night before, I emailed everyone the information they needed to attend the call and everyone was able to join without any problems, including one of the siblings who was travelling. I started the call off by introducing myself as “your moderator for today”, which produced a few chuckles. I confirmed that everyone could hear everyone else clearly on the call well and then explained that we wanted to ensure that everyone had an opportunity to speak about their concerns or share their thoughts, and I would assist in making sure everyone had that chance.

We started with an update from the daughter who was staying temporarily with Dad, on how he was doing and the latest developments. Dad, though invited to be on the call, chose not to join it right away, but he stayed in the room while his daughter participated on the call.

Everyone then took their turn sharing their thoughts and concerns, a few of them requiring some gentle prodding from “the moderator”. I needed to interject on only one occasion, when several people began speaking over each other. After about 75 minutes, the discussion was concluding and at that point Dad was encouraged by his daughter to join the call to greet everyone, which he did. After he received lots of encouragement from his sons and daughters, we closed the call with a short prayer and many good-byes.

Everyone agreed that the “family meeting” conference call was a success and accomplished what would have required many individual one-on-one phone calls, emails, or text messages. It was also reassuring to know that everyone had been able to share, at the same time, all of their information, concerns and wishes regarding Dad's future.

My automated teleconferencing service, as always, worked great. I was able to verify who was on the call with my online meeting display, and everyone was able to hear everyone else very well, including those joining from their cell phones and those on the road. Since our call, I've had friends mention they had never considered using their business conferencing service for a family meeting, but thought it was a good idea. Our family has already discussed it is something we should do again soon.

Thanks for the great service!

Roger R.