About ERMS meetings

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What happens at an ERMS monthly meeting?
  • Every month we have two face to face meetings
  • One meeting is held at each of the following locations:
  • We listen to a presentation by an invited speaker
  • Sometimes we have 'Hands-on' meetings where members have the chance to learn some of the techniques used by real geologists
  • We look at and discuss specimens of rocks and fossils bought along by members of the society (Play and Display)
  • We encourage everyone to wear their name badges, so that we can (hopefully!) avoid the embarrassment of forgeting each other's names
  • We have a cup of tea or coffee and a jolly good natter with our friends
​What happens at an ERMS monthly Zoom meeting?
  • Everyone needs to have the Zoom client installed on their laptop/PC. It's best to download this client prior to your first Zoom meeting from: https://zoom.us/support/download . Its free!
  • Shortly before the meeting, we each log into Zoom by clicking on the weblink that is Emailed by our secretary. It's really easy! There is a new link for each meeting.
    • Most of us do this on our laptops/PCs from our own homes, but with a smartphone, you can access the Zoom meetings from anywhere.
  • Members can enter the Zoom meeting at any time, and will not need to wait to be admitted. Everyone enters in the un-muted state, so that we can all have a chat before the presentation.
  • In order to allow this part of the meeting to run smoothly, members are requested to configure their Zoom client to display their own name*, so that everyone can see who is talking etc. This is a real help for newcomers.
  • We then view a presentation given by an external speaker
    • This is usually someone who is presenting from a long way outside of Essex
    • We record the presentation and upload it to our own YouTube channel (ERMSVIDEO)
  • After the presentation we ask questions of the speaker, and otherwise have a good chinwag
* Changing the name that you display to other Zoom users is quite easy - just go to the bottom LH corner of your Zoom window and click on the name that you are currently presenting to all other Zoom participants. Once you do this, a new window will pop up, listing several options. The option at the bottom is called 'rename'. Click on this and then type in your full name.​​