How to host callers to your Wednesday Evening Testimony Meeting and Record readings

Below is what we use, and how we use it…

Jambox or Braven unit as the speaker

Church cellphone with Bluetooth

Bring your own laptop

A console operator who sits in-person at the Wednesday meeting with the above laptop, cellphone and speaker. Note: this can be done from home, but the timing between the recorded music which all the callers and the console operator are listening to, versus Judy playing live at church, can be problematic. As long as the Reader is listening for her cues from the console operator, it should go well.

A FreeConferenceCall.com account

The day before the service, the First Reader sent Kim an email with the hymns, and she has hopefully remembered to upload them. She’s a famously accomplished and talented and therefore busy woman.

From church:

At 7:15 pm get the church phone from the Reading Room and turn it on.

Get the speaker box in the Sunday School and unplug it from the charging cable. Turn it on using the little round button.

Pair the two. You’ll hear a bong from the speaker usually very quickly after you turn on the speaker box. If the speaker box can’t find the cellphone, then go to the phone’s settngs (page 2 of Settings) and click on Bluetooth.

Once the two are paired, dial into the conference by dialing: (712) 770-5505. When it prompts you, enter 380330#.

Place the speaker box in front of the reader’s podium with the blue light facing him/her. When the reader sits for the testimony portion, she’ll bring it with her for in-house testimonies. Place the church’s phone near it.

IF THE CONSOLE OPERATOR IS IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL RUNNING THE CONSOLE, once the system asks if you’re the HOST, confirm by pressing *, then 1885#.

IF THE CONSOLE OPERATOR IS NOT IN THE ROOM WITH YOU (but is running it from some other location), you’re done. You should be dialing in as everyone else is for the meeting.

LAPTOP. As console operator, your main job is to manage the muting/unmuting of the mic so when the First Reader is speaking, her mic is HOT/ON, but when she’s not speaking (she’s singing or what have you), her mic is OFF. Your other duty is to play the music for the callers, so they can hear the pre-recorded hymns while those in the Sunday School hear the live music. Don’t bother recording the readings, unless you’re just feeling spicy and invincible.

From your browser (any will do), go to https://www.freeconferencecall.com and login with these credentials: jkimbb@msn.com :: the1Mind

Set up your browser so you have two tabs going to that same URL. Set them up side by side so you can see both at the same time (I think it’s easier this way – rather than manually clicking between two windows.

On the left side, click Go to the Meeting Wall (in the bottom section of their Home page, GREEN button) and on the next page, select Meeting Wall along the top menu, and pull down BROADCASTER. This is where you will control and play the hymns and preludes.

On the left side (BROADCASTER), click to play one of the PRELUDES. Keep checking and play others as-needed if it ends before the meeting starts. If the meeting starts in the middle, just hit the STOP button. This is the music callers hear until the meeting starts.

On the right side, click the top menu Meeting Wall and pull down to WEB CONTROLS. This is where you will control who is able to speak from the callers as they ‘raise their hands’ to give a testimony.

On the right side (WEB CONTROLS), under Mute Mode, click Q&A. The Q&A section will show up showing it is indeed in that mode. Q&A means everyone is automatically muted when they dial in, and they have to ‘raise their hand’ to speak by pressing *6. That new section is where you’ll see callers queue for testimonies. In the main Caller section, you should see the HOST dialed in and listed in the Attendee List – that’s the phone being used by the First Reader. BE SURE TO MUTE the church’s phone on the FreeConf screen by clicking the speaker icon under mute so the callers don’t hear y’all chatting.

Each time the pianist is about to begin playing, mute the Host phone, and hit PLAY for the correct hymn. This way, the callers don’t hear both the recorded music and the live piano (which sounds really bad over the phone!). Once the hymn is done, unmute the phone using the icon. The Reader and you will hear, “Unmuted” and that’s the Reader’s cue that her mic is hot.

During the testimonies, if a caller wants to comment, you will see a little ‘chat button’ icon show up next to their name/number in the Q&A session box on the WEB CONTROLS page. Verbally, let the Reader in the Sunday School know that, ‘We have a caller’ – and at the same time click that icon. It will turn into a little ‘person’ icon letting you know that their mic is ON. That tells the caller to ‘go ahead’. When the caller is done, click the icon again to re-mute their phone.

At the end of the service, after the last hymn finishes, the meeting is done. If some are straggling, hit the big “X” next to every name to ensure they properly disconnected from the service.

Return all equipment to where you got each from, and PLUG THEM BACK IN for next week.