Protecting Anonymity

in Virtual Meeting Spaces

From Bill’s last message…If I were asked which of our blessings I felt was most responsible for our growth as a fellowship and most vital to our community, I would say, the “Concept of Anonymity.”

~ Read by Lois at the Annual New York AA Intergroup Dinner, 1970

This article is specifically for Zoom Facilitators and has been included here for transparency in regard to Members and Guests attending virtual meetings hosted by the Antioch Recovery Club.

There is a list of settings below to help guide you and here’s a video if you’d like to cut right to the chase:

A simple guide on how to join a meeting can be found here:

With recent shifts to facilitate online meetings, the ARC Board has made changes to the Zoom settings of every meeting we host to be in alignment with the best practices indicated below for protecting the anonymity of our community. These suggestions have been curated from the long-time membership of virtual meetings and other online resources and we urge you to uphold these settings if you host a personal virtual meeting.

The default Zoom settings run counter to the 12 Step spiritual foundation of anonymity. The meetings are publicly accessible and full names and faces are often displayed. Additionally, by default all Zoom meetings are recorded to the cloud. Gratefully, turning that feature off is simple.

Here are some suggested settings for your meeting to use:

Go to: Settings > Recording and click “off” the Local and Cloud recording features to:

  • Disable Local recording

  • Disable Cloud recording

  • Disable Automatic recording

Go to: Settings > Meeting and perform the following:

  • Require Encryption for Third Party Endpoints

  • Disable Auto saving chats

  • Disable File transfer

  • Disable Feedback to Zoom

  • Disable Screen sharing

  • Disable desktop/screen share for users

  • Disable Remote control

  • Disable Join before host – disabled 04/01/2020

  • Enable Waiting room – enabled 04/01/2020

  • Allow Virtual background (This is the Zoom default and allows the user to use a virtual background instead of the inside of their home.)

We will continue to update this page with additional information as it becomes available and encourage you to share tips and tricks with us that we can include.