Tennessee Native Times

Tennessee Commission of Indian Affairs
COMMUNITY ROUND TABLE CONFERENCES
Public conference calls for members of the TN American Indian community.
You talk. We listen and take notes. Your opportunity to share your ideas, issues or concerns.
Send an e-mail to Valerie Ohle with the subject line "ADD - TCIA CONFERENCE CALL"

January 2009 Schedule
at time of this posting 1 meeting has been scheduled

[1.] Mon., January 12, 2009 - 8:30pm ET/7:30pm CT CANCELLED view details

[2.] Thurs., January __, 2009 - 8:30pm ET/7:30pm CT

[3.] Sat., January __, 2009 - 10:30am ET/9:30am CT

Round Table Discussions Discontinued

*Dial-in-number: 1-219-509-8111 (East Coast No.)
Access code: 466246#
*long distance rates apply

Greetings,

Current gas prices and the general economy are placing an undue stress on far too many of our community members and making it difficult to hold open forums across the state in person.

In an effort to allow the public to have more direct input into Commission activities and give more opportunity for that input, we have decided to try using a telephone conference call. With the help of Commissioner Meeks, we’ve been able to identify a couple of services that provide the technical side of the call for free. While everyone who calls in will have to dial a long distance (toll) number, the cost of the call should be significantly less than the cost of driving to a meeting somewhere.

The service I’ve registered for will allow up to 150 people to participate in a call for up to 4 hours. I’ll be working out a “calendar” with a variety of weekend and evening times in order to accommodate as many people as possible and not interfere with other obligations and/or work schedules, and also so those callers on cell phone can hopefully call during their “free minute” periods. All calls will be recorded and the recordings stored on my blog site at Native Pages/Open Door.

The conference calls are not official commission meetings in the sense that the commissioners will be conducting business. The purpose of the calls is to hear from you, the members of the community. Other than asking you to clarify certain points now and then, or to move to the next speaker when someone is finished, my goal is to simply listen, take notes, and carry your concerns back to the rest of the commissioners as soon as possible, hopefully the next meeting.

Please be aware, this is an attempt to encourage and allow more input into what the commission is doing relevant to the community. These calls will require that everyone follow basic conference-call etiquette such as muting your phone when you’re not speaking, disabling your call-waiting during the call, not placing the conference call on hold, etc. I’ll publish a guide for how to do these things before the first scheduled call.

But they will also require patience, respect for the opinion of others, and respect for one another as human beings. If they don’t remain civil, they will not be continued.

Respectfully,

Valerie Ohle, Chair
TN Commission of Indian Affairs

Basic Conference-Call Etiquette:

Keep your phone muted unless you're ready to speak.
If you have a comment or question for another speaker, wait until they are done before unmuting and breaking in.
Remember to introduce yourself:
Name
General area you're from
Any other info about yourself you want to share
Write out what you want to discuss/say in advance so that you can refer to it if you're interrupted for any reason.
Speak slowly and clearly.
Let us know when you're done speaking and then press *6 to re-mute your phone.
If you know you have something to say before the date of the call, e-mail me so I can call on you when we get started.
If you don't get a turn to speak because we ran out of time, e-mail me with the date of the next call you can make so I can make sure you're one of the first people called on during that particular call.

Touchtone Commands while on the call:

*4 = get help menu
*6 = mute/unmute
*8 = hear remaining conference time
*0 = exit conference call

Tips & Tools:

Call from a quiet location.
Turn off the ringer of a multi-line phone or any other phone in the room.
A bad connection can sometimes be the cause of background static. If this happens, hang up and dial in again until you get a clear line.
Do not put your phone on hold if you have on-hold music or advertisements. Your on-hold music will play for conference Participants making conversation impossible in your absence.
Turn off your call waiting or its beeping will disrupt the conference and may be confused with entry or exit chimes. For example, dialing *70 before the conference dial-in number disables call waiting for some phone services. If you need assistance with this feature, contact your local phone service provider.
Self-mute can be used by any conference Participant and can be turned on and off by pressing *6 on the telephone keypad.
You will be muted by default when you enter the call. Remember to press *6 on the telephone keypad to unmute before commenting.
Listen To Previous Calls