Safe Practices for Online Gatherings

If you are spending some time online in groups with children, youth and/or other vulnerable individuals, please keep in mind the safety of your group.  
We are in the midst of resourcing a policy for Safe Practices for Online Gatherings which will be here very soon.  If you like, send us a note in the contact form and we can send you the link as soon as it is active. 
In the meantime,  please consider:

• making sure the leader is the host and no one can join the group until the leader does,
• making sure the group is by password or invitation only, vet and approve all people before they join the group (this might feel uncomfortable, but it is the responsibility of the leader to ensure safety of all participants),
• making sure parents and guardians know what you are doing and they approve the online gathering,
• and, if you are recording the session, that all people have agreed to the recording and names and other information that might lead to a family's and/or individual's home cannot be found (ie - so if you are Zoom, the names of the participants are not showing).

Unfortunately, some people in virtual calls throughout the world are experiencing issues with trolls (presenting inappropriate material in the chat window or visual images, etc) 
To avoid similar things happening on your zoom calls, protect your Zoom calls and participants:

• Disable “Join Before Host” so you can authorize those who are coming into your meeting right from the start
  
• Disable "allow Participants to Share Screen"
• Enabling “Co-Host” so you can assign others to help moderate.
• Disable “File Transfer” so there’s no digital virus sharing.
• Disable “Allow Removed Participants to Rejoin” so booted attendees can’t slip back in.