openpower.foundation/content/blog/openpower-virtual-coffee-calls.md

---
title: "OpenPOWER “Virtual Coffee” Calls"
date: "2020-03-23"
categories: 
  - "blogs"
tags: 
  - "hugh-blemings"
  - "open-source"
  - "covid-19"
  - "virtual-coffee"
  - "teleconference"
---

As we deal with the serious implications of COVID-19, the team at the OpenPOWER Foundation got to thinking about how a technical organisation like ourselves can connect and support our community.

So we hit upon the idea of running ongoing, informal weekly teleconference calls **(dial-in details below)** to help the open-source community stay in touch in a time of restricted travel options.

[Hugh Blemings](https://www.linkedin.com/in/hugh-blemings/), formerly the OpenPOWER Foundation ED and now Board Advisor, will host these informal calls.  We'll begin with introductions, then we will encourage participants to share updates and, time permitting, have a Q&A at the end. In turn, participants who want to can each have a few minutes to give a summary of what they're working on with OpenPOWER or any other interesting open-source projects. The intended format is meant to be similar to agile "Standup Meetings," but more informal. Calls won't be recorded or minuted, and those calling in can present something as fun or as formal as they prefer. If you are interested in just listening in, we encourage you to join as well!

These calls can also serve as an opportunity for you to ask for any help that you might need, getting support from the community. 

**These calls occur every week on Tuesday 2200h UTC** **for 30-45 minutes**. We originally had two times but the "UTC Morning" calls were lightly attended so we dropped back to one a week.  Hopefully this still works for the schedules of the majority of interested people across the globe. We'll keep the section below up to date about calls but you can safely assume they are _usually_ on! 

We'll have these calls whether there are 2, 20 or 200 folks on the line - though if it's the latter we'll need to get clever about passing the virtual microphone around. :)

You're welcome to call in when you can and stay for as long as you like, but we do ask that you are respectful of your fellow attendees. If you’re interested in joining ways to do so are detailed below. 

Look forward to staying in touch!

# **Call-in Details etc.**

The calls will occur every week on Tuesdays 2200h UTC and will last 30-45 minutes. The first call will be **Thursday 26 March** and will continue until further notice, there is a public calendar you can follow for updates - [web page](https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=j7ncevllkdf5ov4rfdpo561n7g%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=Australia%2FMelbourne) or [iCal format](https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/j7ncevllkdf5ov4rfdpo561n7g%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics)

The call will be a Zoom teleconference - [https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89040781548](https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89040781548) (note the Zoom details changed for calls after May 25, 2020)

There are Zoom clients/plugins for most popular desktop and phone operating systems as well as a native browser mode known to work on POWER and x86 versions of the Chrome browser.

To start the web client directly from your browser, you may need to click the “click here to launch the meeting” link twice to get the required link to appear. 

You can also dial in directly from a regular phone by using the Meeting ID: 890 4078 1548 and consulting the list of local numbers here: [https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbbijfwRms](https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbbijfwRms)

If for some reason we have to change any aspect of the call, we’ll update this page accordingly.

_Updated: August 4 to reflect shift to one call a week on Tuesday evenings 2200 UTC_

_Previous updates: No Call 18 June 2200 UTC, 4 June to note a one off call cancellation and add the online calendar info; 29 May 2020 to reflect new Zoom callin information and Hugh's new role._