Zoom hosts - participants or not?

kartvelo

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Hey there,
The local church scheduled a virtual town hall for tonight and allotted 100 attendees (the account maximum with a Pro acct). Now they're panicking because no one can say for sure whether the three planned hosts count against the 100 attendees, and three hopeful attendees will be denied access when they try to log in.

Anyone know for sure? Zoom support is being impacted by the weather in the mid-west and isn't taking their calls.
 

SoxJox

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First, Zoom only allows 1 host per meeting. You can designate "co-hosts", but that cannot be done until after the meeting has started. Co-hosts assume most but not all of the host privileges, but cannot start a meeting. When scheduling the meeting, the host can also designate "alternative hosts", who assume the same privileges as the host, including the ability to start a meeting.

Second, the language on most of the plans say, "Host up to [max # of] participants", which suggests to me the host is not included. However, the co-hosts designated after the meeting has started enter the meeting as participants, so do I imagine do count against the limit. Not sure about alternative hosts, but my guess is they count against the maximum limit, otherwise you could circumvent the limit by just designating everyone as an alternative host.
 

kartvelo

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Yeah, co-hosts or alternative hosts is what I mean they plan to do. One or the other, I don't know which.
Looks as though there might be a couple of disappointed latecomers to this meeting.... :confused:
 

VTSox

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You can add increased capacity for $50 / month if you're worried about going too far over
 

kartvelo

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I'm just an interested bystander, as my wife works for the parish, but I'll let them know about that.
I suspect that they're too frazzled at this point to make any moves. And Zoom support isn't taking calls anyway at the moment.
 

bsj

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If is so dumb that Zoom wont let me a assign a co-host who can actively launch a meeting if I am running late. Its caused problems on multiple occasions.
 

luckiestman

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If is so dumb that Zoom wont let me a assign a co-host who can actively launch a meeting if I am running late. Its caused problems on multiple occasions.
Being late all the time seems more like a you problem than a ZOOM problem.
 

bsj

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Being late all the time seems more like a you problem than a ZOOM problem.
It's not about tardiness really...I am on a 3 person team and while I lead most of the regular calls, every now and then one or my teammates takes it because maybe I am double booked or some other reason. Yet its dumb I can't just assign them to be the lead for that partricular meeting. Regardless of conflict, I have to make sure to log on at the start time, start the meeting, wait for them to show, make them co lead, and then jump off.
 

swiftaw

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I'm pretty sure you can designate an alternative host prior to the meeting starting. That alternative host has permissions to start the meeting in the hosts absence.
 

changer591

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You can certainly set up a meeting that doesn't even require a Host, and then the first person that joins the meeting will be the Host, and then when the real Host joins, they will be designated the Host automatically. I've had plenty of meetings set up where I wasn't even present.
 

Was (Not Wasdin)

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I'm pretty sure you can designate an alternative host prior to the meeting starting. That alternative host has permissions to start the meeting in the hosts absence.
You can certainly set up a meeting that doesn't even require a Host, and then the first person that joins the meeting will be the Host, and then when the real Host joins, they will be designated the Host automatically. I've had plenty of meetings set up where I wasn't even present.
I've done both of these. if you want to designate an alternative host, go into "Advanced Options", it should be at the bottom. If you want a meeting that starts without a host, when scheduling the meeting make sure "require a passcode" is on, "enable waiting room" is off, and then go into "Advanced Options" and make sure "Allow participants to join before host" is on.
 

mwonow

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Sep 4, 2005
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I set up a pooled email account for Zoom, which allows any of several folks to log in as 'me'.

Also, re: Zoom upgrades, they're automatic and instant, so if you're worried about hitting the limit, you can spend the $50 now, set (IIRC) a non-renew so that it's a one time charge, and it will be in place as soon as your CC is charged.

Note, though, that attendance is always way below reg. I hosted a Zoom today - 100 person license, 130+ registered, about 50 attendees at peak...
 

kartvelo

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It turns out that, as was predicted here, they only had 80+ show up, so there was no crisis after all.
I'm glad to have learned more about co-hosts and alternative hosts, though. That might come in handy for my own purposes.