BRATTLEBORO — Beginning this week, Selectboard meetings will take place on Zoom.
The decision to change the platform came after the board's discussion about the advantages of using Zoom for Representative Town Meeting, Selectboard Chair Tim Wessel said in a news release.
According to Wessel, Zoom is more user-friendly and “more well-known to regular users than GoToMeeting,” the service that the town has been using for remote public meetings during the pandemic.
Another plus for using Zoom for Selectboard meetings: The town “will have time to 'break in' the service as both a host and as users” well in advance of Annual Representative Town Meeting, Wessel said.
The meeting will take place over the platform on Saturday, Sept. 12.
Zoom was established in 2011, and the videoconferencing software service's popularity has surged during the COVID-19 pandemic. But as municipalities, classrooms, and companies alike began adapting to a new world of communicating in isolation, some online experts questioned security holes.
The company responded with a 90-day plan to add new security features, controls for meeting organizers, and options for users in an effort that by May satisfied New York Attorney General Letitia James, who had opened an inquiry into the company's security practices.
Wessel added that “the security concerns we had in March that swayed us toward GoToMeeting are no longer present.”
Since moving from in-person meetings to online meetings on April 2, the Selectboard and the town's other boards and committees have held their meetings on the GoToMeeting platform.
Some boards and committees will continue to meet on GoToMeeting, while others may switch to Zoom.
Which platform and the information about how to attend and participate in these meetings is published at the top of every meeting's agenda.
Selectboard meeting login information
To attend and participate in Selectboard meetings from your computer, tablet, or smartphone, visit us02web.zoom.us/j/86067892659.
You also can call in using your telephone by dialing any of these toll-free numbers in the United States: 833-548-0282, 877-853-5247, 888-788-0099, or 833-548-0276.
For a list of non-toll-free numbers for locations around the world, visit us02web.zoom.us/u/k2Hdbk6mA.
The Meeting ID is 860 6789 2659.