Online Meeting with Recording (expense)

Requirement 馃
We need to have an ability to record our online calls and meetings, to support our remote first and asynchronous way of working ... and as a record of what has been discussed, etc.
Background
Google meet had it for a while, but then they removed that functionality without an enterprise licence 馃槩
Since then, we have not had a workable way to record our meetings, without having a paid option.
We're now at the point that without having the ability to record meetings easily, it is having a negative impact across the organisation and teams. We need to change this, however there is a cost to this.
Proposal/Discussion 馃挰
There's been a few discussions around this, from a shared single account (get cal conflicts, etc) to having an account for each "team" or functional area.
How many licences should we have, who should get one, can we share somehow, are there other options 馃槼
Have had a bit of a look around, but with non-profit discount, zoom seems like it may be the logical choice ... but very open to other suggestions 馃憤
Because this is a significant cost, approval is required by members for this expenditure (although as the coop has no funds, Max will be paying it for now and beg for forgiveness from his wife after the fact).
This is the zoom discount Pricing

Max Fri 22 Jan 2021 6:41AM
also, anyone with a student email/uni can get a free student account on loom.com ... which is a halfway between the normal paid and free on set of features (eg. upto 45min length recording)

Judith Baeta Fri 22 Jan 2021 7:21AM
@Max I do have a student email!! I have changed it to my student profile and waiting for my student account to get verified. It says it can take a few days for Loomio to verify that though, but I'll keep you posted!

Max Mon 25 Jan 2021 4:27AM
how'd you go with a student account from loom.com? Do you think could be good option for most uses with students @Judith Baeta ... and big, long session requirements via loom.com standard paid account?

Judith Baeta Mon 25 Jan 2021 8:26AM
@Max so I haven't heard back from Loomio re: my student account validation (it's also been the weekend so...), but I don't see where in my account I can see which type of account I have in case it's been verified but haven't received a notification.

Judith Baeta Fri 22 Jan 2021 7:26AM
Another alternative I had looked into is Jitsi Meet (https://meet.jit.si/) 鈥斅爌erhaps you've already looked into this one @Max. It's completely free and while it does not have the recording functionality embedded, there are multiple ways they suggest how to do it: https://jitsi.github.io/handbook/docs/faq#can-i-record-and-save-the-video
It might be a bit of a hassle... but perhaps is also worth trying considering the (non)expense. Just another suggestion! :)

Max Mon 25 Jan 2021 4:17AM
haven't tried/heard-of jit.si before ... but, not sure that's the answer. Have already tried OBS and similar with meet, and it isn't a viable option ... as seamless and easy recording is really what we are after - meet is ok for meetings, just need recording.

Max Mon 25 Jan 2021 4:32AM
I found this recording option -> https://screencast-o-matic.com/plans-team
Looks a bit like loom.com, but is WAY, WAY cheaper ... which looks to be $4/user/month (a user being an editing user) .... and they have a 65% off on their prices, so only $1.75/user/month by the looks of it.
Will get a trial/free account and have a look and see if it actually works !!!

Max Mon 25 Jan 2021 5:18AM
This is the screen recording I just took, to see if screencast-o-matic is any good - when I finished recording I clicked upload and share, and this is the link it gave me straight away while it was processing the video.
http://somup.com/crVThbozVR

Max Mon 25 Jan 2021 5:55AM
gave that a go and DOES NOT seem to work at all ... all the audio is completely stuffed and the video no good - no wonder it is so cheap !!!!

Max Mon 25 Jan 2021 6:23AM
OK ... gonna try this one .... looks like a loss-leader free functionality for VIMEO .... this would be very cool, and pretty cheap on paid plans as well -> gonna give it a try @Judith Baeta
> https://vimeo.com/features/screen-recorder

Max Mon 25 Jan 2021 10:05PM
Had issues creating a vimeo account on my mac yesterday, so couldn't trial the vimeo recorder ... gonna test it out today. (want to have something for the LONG session tomorrow, to make sure it records well for anyone who wants to watch afterwards).
Other ones I found were https://www.getcloudapp.com/screen-recorder and https://droplr.com/products/screenshot-screen-recorder/ ... which both are comparable to loom - but, want to see which is actually the best overall ... both for paid and free users, and for collaboration and easyuse as well :)

Max Mon 25 Jan 2021 11:32PM
have also sent a request to wistia .... regarding their wistia soapbox product for non-profits .... they had a post earlier last year that they were giving it to non-profits for free !!!
and looks like it'd be pretty great (and work out pretty well price wise perhaps, even if discounted paid option) -> https://wistia.com/soapbox/pricing

Max Thu 28 Jan 2021 5:08AM
Suggestion from @Penelope Stephens was that we could set a rule that we use Zoom as a default across all of our meetings, and we default that meetings will be 40 minutes or less. This is available in all free zoom plans.
Additional to this, is that ALL meetings should be fully defined and resourced BEFORE the meeting is scheduled/called, so be respectful of everyone's time; in the format PAO:
- Purpose
- Agenda
- Outcomes
For the occasions where we have to go over 40 minutes, such as the all-hands, workshops, etc we have just ONE Zoom paid account, with a shared login between members (eg. zoom@forhumanity.org.au).
This actually seems like a super-good and pragmatic suggestion and helps to ensure we operate in a way that is most efficient and meets the requirements.
Additional notes to this are:
- For short messages, updates, etc by video, you are able to do this via ClickUp and also Zoom ... both letting you record screen, video, etc ... so meets that requirement 100% (like loomio. etc)
- This can be used for onboarding videos, team updates, demo, and however else we want.
- this does not have editing and such, but that's probably ok for this use?
- we DO need to have certain process to archive/upload/share so there is a standard place and output that is retained over time and able to be looked back on, any suggestions?
Yash Shelatkar Fri 29 Jan 2021 5:38PM
I have used Zoom and Loom both, in terms of the loom I would say its good for creating short 60 seconds videos or client proposals, but for meetings zoom is a better alternative I think.

Penelope Stephens Fri 29 Jan 2021 8:02PM
So one Zoom licence would be A$209.90 pa (https://zoom.us/pricing). This seems like a reasonable expense and Zoom is easy and reliable. I'd like to try keeping our team meetings to 40 minutes which is very doable for the Ops team standard meetings if we have a clear agenda.
I started working wiht the PAO approach to meeitngs last year and found it very useful. It takes more time upfront to think through the meeting but I believe it helps them run more smoothly and I HOPE it's more efficient for attendees to also have this inromation in advance.

Poll Created Sun 31 Jan 2021 11:04PM
Use Zoom as Default for ALL Meetings Closed Tue 2 Feb 2021 3:59AM
Have got the zoom paid account for us to use (currently being billed monthly)
Use one shared Zoom license for long workshops and similar sessions, with one Zoom license being A$209.90pa (https://zoom.us/pricing). This seems like a reasonable expense and Zoom is easy and reliable.
For other & team meetings, we should try and keep them under 40 minutes and use the PAO (Purpose, Agenda, Outcome) approach ... means more time upfront to properly outline and resource meeting, but this is believed to be a good thing to help improve efficiency and impact of meetings, and more respectful of people's time.
As talking through all the options has reduced this to a fairly small cost and the discussions thread has been open for some time, I have opened this proposal for a short period so we can just move ahead.->
-> Unless someone objects, will move forward with this without delay.
Results
Results | Option | % of points | Voters | |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Consent | 100.0% | 5 |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Abstain | 0.0% | 0 | ||
Objection | 0.0% | 0 | ||
Undecided | 0% | 0 |
5 of 5 people have voted (100%)

Judith Baeta
Sun 31 Jan 2021 11:04PM
Agree with the proposal of having 1 paid Zoom account for longer meetings (eg. All-hands) and sticking to 40-min long meetings (free) for everything else.
Max 路 Fri 22 Jan 2021 5:13AM
another option we could look at (and sorta cool cross-purpose use) ... would be giving the emember who require a paid license for https://www.loom.com/pricing
It is a cool screen recording app, unlimited recording length (and screenshots) ... with drawing and basic editing tools, calls to action, etc. There is a team library, so super easy to just sort the recordings into folders and there is comments, notes, etc for each one as well ... which is sorta cool.
This means we could continue using google meet (no extra cost), and record what we see during our meetings in the meeting ... and also be able to use for tutorials, quick grabs, etc
Looking at the pricing it would be usd$96/yr per person .... so in AUD we'd be looking at:
-> 6 licences of zoom = AUD $729.70
-> 6 licences of Loom.com = AUD $724
So, minimal difference in the pricing ... but, others could do quick recordings/demos, etc on the free account up to 5min in length ... so, cross purpose for short messages, demo, etc ??