Make sure that Program Linking is ON in two locations.
First, go to the Sharing Setup Control Panel and turn Program Linking ON.
Then, go to the Users and Groups Control Panel and turn Program Linking ON for the Guest icon or create icons for everyone you’d like to join the meeting and turn on Program Linking for each icon.
For Conference Leader:
1) Rename a copy of the Server application to the meeting topic. For example, you could rename it to “Widgets Product Launch”
2) Launch the Server application. You can put the Server in the foreground or you can let it run in the background. It does not require a dedicated Macintosh.
3) To password protect a meeting, simply select “Password” from the Conference menu and type in a password. Make sure that your attendees know the password.
4) Make sure that everyone has copies of Town Meeting and that everyone turns program linking on as specified above.
For Each Conference Attendee:
1) Launch your copy of Town Meeting.
2) Choose "Change User Name" from the Conference menu and type in your name. Please follow this step even if you plan on holding an anonymous meeting. In anonymous mode, your name will never be sent to the server. When you first boot up, Town Meeting will automatically ask you to enter your name. The name you enter will be stored between sessions. However, if you compress your Town Meeting application with the current AutoDoubler software from Salient, it will not save your name. To fix this problem, simply leave Town Meeting uncompressed. Then, launch it, change your name, and quit. You can now compress it again and everything will work perfectly.
3) Decide if it's going to be an anonymous meeting or not. If it is, everyone should check “Anonymous” from the Conference Menu. You can change this setting at any time if you'd like to be identified when you speak. If you do not even want the Server to know your name and make it available for private messaging, put yourself into anonymous mode before you join the conference. If you would like your name listed, but not present when you type your comments, put yourself into anonymous mode after you join the conference.
4) Now, everyone should join the conference. To do this, simply select the Make Connection… menu item from the Connection menu. Look for the conference leader's Macintosh and select the conference topic that you want to join. If a password is necessary, Town Meeting will prompt you for the password. Simply type in the correct password in this box.
5) Start typing. To send your message, press the Send button or type return or enter. Your text will be broadcast whenever you press the Send button or press return or enter.
6) At any time, you can save the meeting to a text file that can be opened with TeachText or your word processor. Just select Save from the File Menu. Saving will only save the text that is still in your text window. After about 25,000 characters, older text is lost. The best way to save a meeting is to turn on the logging feature. Select "Start Log…" from the File menu to start saving the meeting to a text file. Select "Stop Log" to close the log file when you'd like to stop logging. Quitting automatically closes the log file. The Save feature is included primarily for users who forgot to turn on logging but still want to save the information in their text file. They can simply save the information that is already there and then turn on logging.
7) At any time, you can call for a vote. Before you call for a vote, tell everyone the choices by simply typing the choices and sending them. Then, go to the Conference menu and select "Initiate Vote." Everyone will get a voting dialog box and should enter their choice. When everyone has voted or abstained, the server will send everyone the results.
8) At any time, you can send a private message to another meeting attendee in your conference. If you do not know the correct usernames of the attendees, select "List People in Conference" from the Conference menu. Then, select "Send Message…" from the Conference Menu. Type in the correct username and the message you'd like to send.
9) The “Send Universal Mail…” menu item from the “Universal” menu lets you send mail to any Town Meeting user on any Macintosh. Just type in your message and press “Send.” Then, choose the Macintosh you want to send to from the dialog box that comes up. Your mail will be sent. This feature is especially useful as a “Phone” capability so that you can call users to your meetings. It’s also useful as a private mail feature. Even when you’re not in a meeting, everyone on your network can use this feature to send mail to each other. If everyone puts an alias to Town Meeting in their Startup Items folder, Town Meeting will always be running and always available.
10) To exit the meeting, just quit the Town Meeting application. Everyone will receive a message that you've left the meeting.
You can even simulate a meeting on your own screen by following the above steps. Just put the server and several different Town Meeting applications on the same Mac and connect them all to the Server running in the background.
Meeting Tips:
Your meetings may get a little out of control at times if everyone attempts to type at once. On America Online (a commercial online service), the forums have devised a way to make large meetings more manageable.
To prevent others from interrupting everyone, make sure that everyone types GA (go ahead) or some other word when they are finished typing. That way, no one will interrupt the person who is "speaking."
One person can become the meeting leader. The leader can tell people when it is their turn to speak. When someone wants to make a comment, they type an exclamation mark and return. When someone wants to ask a question, they type a question mark and return. The leader then keeps track of who should speak next. (Bill, it's your turn to speak.) Of course, this only works well when the meeting is not anonymous.
You'll probably figure out other ways to make your meetings more productive as you use the software more.
The Town Meeting window can store about 25,000 characters before it starts to lose older information.
The server will only allow 3 attendees in a meeting in this shareware release. You'll need to order a larger license to increase the number of people that can attend your meeting.
