Can’t find a meeting time that works for everyone? Want to meet with friends, colleagues and classmates with a simple, easy-to-use group chat tool?
Though the College’s Communication Center (Zimbra) has a chat feature, it does not yet accommodate group chats. In the meantime, Gmail Chat works well for this - try these steps to set it up and see for yourself!
- Each participant needs a gmail account
- Whoever will be initiating the group chat should then add each person’s Gmail address to her contacts
- It’s also helpful for the person who will be initiating the group chat to invite each participant to chat in advance
- When it’s time to chat, begin by initiating a chat with one of the participants
- To add more participants and begin a group chat, simply use the “options” button at the bottom of your chat window, and enter the names of the contacts you’d like to add to the chat
Tips:
- If you and/or some of your participants are new to group chat, it’s helpful to make one person’s phone number available so that if a participant is having trouble joining, he or she can call for help
- It’s also great to establish some shorthands to indicate agreement, confirmation, questions, etc. (such as entering a “!” to indicate “yes” or “I agree”)
- Though you may want to take notes by hand throughout the meeting, a transcript is also saved in your Gmail account
