Should we do weekly group conference calls over Skype?

[Winston]

Hi all,
I was thinking. I want to call and talk to a lot of you. But theres no time to call everyone here. So what do you think of us all doing a group conference call over Skype? That way we can talk to each other all at once and get to know each other. Its much more personal and real than on a forum.

We could make it a weekly thing too, like say every Wednesday or Thursday night.

It could be a structured thing or free flowing. Like a Q&A thing. But since we are all freethinkers i think a free flowing thing is better since we dislike too much structure.

What do you all think? How many of you would be willing to participate?

Should we make it free or by paid membership only?

What about using google hang outs? Is that software better than Skype?

[PeterAndrewNolan]

Hi Winston,
it depends on what you want to achieve out of such calls.

The topics men here are interested in are so diverse I am not sure how that would work.

We are using new video conferencing facilities at zoom and that is working really well.

I have invited my subs to submit questions I am happy to answer over video but even that gets a low response rate for my few subs on my channel.

So I guess it's what do you want to talk about?

The call in show format has always worked well..thats why radio stations use it...so you might try something like that. Just a thought.

Bill Greathouse and I did a blog talk radio show for a while and Bill is running another one again..that works ok as long as you talk about current events otherwise it just gets stale.

Just my thoughts.

[Winston]

Well its not like a business conference call. Its more like a social conference call for us to get to know each other, share ideas and experiences, ask each other questions, etc. Like a hang out chat. Doesnt have to be structured.

It feels good sometimes to talk to real people than just on a forum. And it might provide some emotional support too. It'd also strengthen the friendships here too, by making the communication more real.

We could have one for experienced expats from the VIP board, to share their experiences on expat issues. And another one for newbies. Etc.

[MattHanson1990]

I'm down for a VIP conversation. I'd like to share my experiences living abroad with other expatriates.

[Zambales]

We could make it a weekly thing too, like say every Wednesday or Thursday night.

People are in different timezones though.

[Contrarian Expatriate]

I hope one day to do a face to face meet-up. Maybe that could be arranged in conjunction with some other larger conference with a HA sub-meet-up.

[Winston]

We could make it a weekly thing too, like say every Wednesday or Thursday night.

People are in different timezones though.

True. But most are in the US. So we could do something like 9pm EST. Thats the way most do it. The rest overseas would have to get up early in the morning, including me. Lol

[Winston]

Btw these conference calls would have to be somewhat structured, unless it was just three people. Otherwise if theres 5 or 10 people and we all try to talk freely like in a phone conversation, everyone would be talking at once. So we'd have to do something like each person gets to speak for 5 minutes or something and take turns. And have a moderator too.

Does anyone know if google hangouts is better than Skype? What's the difference?

[Winston]

Ok I've set up a poll. Please vote above in the top of the thread. Thanks.

[Winston]

Wow I guess theres more participation on this topic in our Facebook group than here. Thats sad guys.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/happier ... 776167613/

I guess FB is more popular than the forum. Mark Zuckerberg has the superior platform. Lol