Using Microsoft Teams for GAA Meetings

The COVID-19 pandemic is obviously having a major impact on the way different GAA units work and communicate. So, the GAA’s Officer Development Committee is eager to make common jobs easier by providing a series of educational webinars in the coming weeks. These will complement online meetings that are already happening between certain departments and county officer groups.
Yesterday evening (22nd April), a live broadcast was held on using Microsoft Teams for online meetings and seminars. It was delivered by the highly experienced Noel Tierney and Gerard Bradley from the GAA’s IT Committee.

The following topics were discussed

The benefits of using Teams
How to access Teams
Logging in for the first time
Scheduling online meetings
How to join a meeting
How to share a screen and documents
Other useful tips and tricks

Please find attached the slides and user guide for Microsoft Teams.

Teams Presentation

User Guide – MS Teams

Click here to watch the webinar again.

Click here if you wish to give feedback on this webinar.

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A summary of answers to questions that arose is below:

Q. Can I host a meeting via the Teams App on my mobile phone?

A. You can set-up a meeting and host it, but you typically won’t have all the features available through the desktop on your PC.

Q. Can Clubs use Teams to organise meetings with their Club Officers?

A. Yes.  Club Chairpersons, Secretaries, Treasurers and PROs are all entitled to an official GAA e-mail account.  The Microsoft Teams package is available as part of the GAA’s arrangement with Microsoft for Clubs.

Q. I am an Officer, but don’t have an official GAA e-mail account.  How can I get one?

Ask one of the other Officers on your Executive to contact the same service using their official GAA e-mail account.

Contact details are:

E: mail.support@gaa.ie

T: +353 1 8843258

Q. What is the maximum number of attendees on a Teams call?

250

Q. Can Teams be used for voting?

It isn’t recommended.  At the recent Special Congress, delegates voted after the meeting using Microsoft Forms.  It is more confidential.  Click here to access the user guide on using Forms.

Q. Is audio conferencing available as part of the GAA’s arrangement with Microsoft?

A. No, not be default.  The audio-conferencing add-on can be purchased for an additional cost, which is approximately €1.61 per “Organiser”, e.g. a County Secretary.

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If you have further questions, you are encouraged to direct these to your County IT Officer itofficer.cork@gaa.ie .  These officers part of an IT Officer Forum which relays queries and feedback to Tomás Meehan (GAA Chief Information Officer) and the IT Committee for consideration.  They will have much more technical knowledge on your queries.