Starting in 2020, the OpSIG started hosting virtual meetups. We can accommodate either one presenter for the entire hour or two presenters to split the time. If you want to do a presentation without the pressure of a live meeting, please contact editor@opsig.org and your content can be recorded at a time of your choosing. 

In terms of content, anything operations-related is fair game for these sessions. That said, some things just don't work on Zoom:

• Playing a video through Zoom is painful. It's best to share that video URL in advance or after the fact and we'll link to it from this page. If you do have video to stream, make sure that when you show the video, check the box that says Optimize for video when you choose which screen to share.
• Layout tours are best done as prerecorded video that can be shared. If you want to do live video of particular parts of your layout, that's fine, but keep the focus on operations.
• You may want to have a second person acting as your camera person if you're going to be moving around.

If you're interested in presenting, please contact Eric Smith at editor@opsig.org. Eric can also do a test meeting if you want to try out your video capabilities. 

Because of the large number of participants, we have to put a few extra rules into place:

• All participants will remain muted until the host unmutes them.
• If you have a question, you can either type it in the chat window or you can raise your hand. To get to the Raise Hand feature, click the Participants button to see a list of other participants.
• At the lower right hand corner of this list, there is a button with an ellipsis (...) on it. Click there and you can choose Raise Hand. This will notify the host that you want to talk and the host will unmute you.
• A final rule that I am sad to have to list - if you're going to turn your video on, put clothes on. Apparently there was someone shirtless in the last call that I didn't see and let's just say he was not exactly runway supermodel caliber.

Also, since we don't have time to introduce everyone, you can change your name for just this meeting to show your name, location, and/or favorite railroads, if you like. For instance, I might set mine to this:

Eric Smith, Fishers IN, Canadian Pacific/BNSF

To do this, you can click the More button next to your name in the Participants panel and choose Rename.