Moorestown To Improve Technology Used For Virtual Meetings

MOORESTOWN, NJ — Moorestown Council will use the same technology used by the NFL and American Idol to stage its next meeting, officials said Monday night.

Council will experiment with using Microsoft Teams at its March 8 meeting in hopes of cutting down on some of the issues that have plagued their virtual meetings for the last year amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“When we do have someone from the public who wants to interact with us, they can’t raise their hand like we can with each other, and there’s a little bit of clunkiness,” Deputy Mayor Sue Mammarella said. “There has been that element where three people come in at once (via telephone), and it’s very awkward.”

There have also been instances where the video livestream has cut out in the middle of a meeting, as well as other issues with the teleconference portion.

The township currently uses Civicplus, which was designed for public meetings, but not designed to be used for the amount of meetings the township has been using it for since the pandemic began last March, according to computer professional John Polkloewicz.

He said the township can upgrade the platform it currently uses, but that would open the township up to possible security risks, including the possibility of using the chat feature to send malicious links that can crash the system.

It would be the same if they were to switch to Zoom, a common platform people have used to communicate with each other during the pandemic.

He shared information with council about the use of technology for public meetings, and shared a story about the New Jersey NAACP being “Zoom Bombed” with racist messages.

With Microsoft Teams, members of the public will be able to participate in the meeting the same as if they were attending in person, but they won’t have to call in on the phone. That option will still exist for those who don’t have a computer or a smartphone.

The administrator will have the ability to put people back into the queue if things get out of hand, and then invite them back in when things settle down.

As far as appearance is concerned, residents will be able to see all five members of council on the screen at once, and up to 500 residents would be able to participate.

The township will first use the improved technology during the Low & Moderate Income Housing Oversight Committee meeting set for March 2, 7 p.m.