New Audio Conferencing Facility To: "A - Division Chief and Staff", "B - Branch Chiefs and Offices", "DC - All District Chiefs", "AO - All Administrative Officers" From: "Catherine L Hill, ACH/Operations, Reston, VA" Cc: "Catherine L Hill, ACH/Operations, Reston, VA" , "Stephen F Blanchard, Deputy ACHO, Reston, VA" , "Alice C Dilandro, Secretary (S), Reston, VA" Subject: New Audio Conferencing Facility Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 10:25:50 -0500 In Reply Refer To: Mail Stop 441 MEMORANDUM March 11, 1998 To: Water Resources Division Senior Staff Branch and Office Chiefs District Chiefs Administrative Officers From: Catherine L. Hill /signed by Stephen F. Blanchard/ Assistant Chief Hydrologist for Operations Subject: New Audio Conferencing Facility A new audio conferencing facility was recently installed in Reston and announced by the Office of Program Support (OPS). This facility is open for use by all Water Resources Division (WRD) offices. The facility will allow more remote callers to participate in clearer conference calls while reducing bureau communications cost. Following are some key points to remember about audio conferencing and the use of this new facility. o The new facility is to open to all U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)offices. There are no restrictions on locations of partipants. Thus, a district or region can set up local or regional conference calls through the Reston Communications Center. o The new facility can accept up to 24 remote calls or any number of smaller groups at the same time--not exceeding a total of 24 calls. The capacity is likely to be expanded in the future. o Conference calls must be scheduled in advance by sending email to restontalk@usgs.gov. Be sure to include your name, division, telephone number, conference date, starting time, duration, and the number of callers expected. Regularly recurring conference calls can also be scheduled. Once scheduled, you will be given a unique access code that all callers must use to call into the conference. The new setup is growing in popularity, so schedule as far in advance as possible. o The current practice of calling FTS2000 for scheduling large conference calls should be discontinued in favor of the new audio facility whenever possible. The new facility is much less costly than FTS2000 conferencing. o Many phone systems have the capability of doing conference calls for a small number of callers. For conferencing of up to three calls or short notice conferences, employees should continue to use their local phone system capabilities. The new facility should be used for conferences of four or more participants that can be scheduled in advance. o Additional information about the audio conferencing facility can be found on the following OPS web page: http://www.usgs.gov:8888/ops/telecom/video.html