April 2024 Update: The names of the volunteer zoom accounts were recently updated to reflect the current region names (East 1, Central 3, West 4, etc.). The sign-in credentials of the new accounts were emailed to chairs, orientation coordinators, and volunteer engagement coordinators, but any volunteer can have them! Write to AskAFS@afsusa.org to request the sign-in credentials.
***Please do not attempt to reset the password for your regional account if you are having trouble logging in. Review the troubleshooting tips below, and write to AskAFS if you still need assistance logging in.***
Zoom accounts for volunteers have been created for each region so that volunteers can schedule their own team meetings, orientations, and other virtual AFS events. Advantages of volunteers being able to schedule and conduct their own zoom meetings include the ability to download participant lists, record and play back meetings without staff involvement, the opportunity to create polls and breakout rooms in advance, and of course the flexibility to schedule meetings at will.
Volunteer chairs, volunteer engagement coordinators, and orientation coordinators have been sent the sign-in credentials, and other volunteers can write to AskAFS@afsusa.org to request the username and password for your region. Click here for a short video tutorial on using your regional Zoom accounts.
How to use your regional account:
- When scheduling a meeting, please name the title of your meeting with your team name, what the meeting is for, and your name and email address. For instance, “Western PA Post-Arrival Orientation (Fred Rogers frogersAFS@gmail.com)”
- These accounts are for AFS activities only and are shared by the teams in your region. Please use your own personal zoom account for non-AFS activities.
- Please be sure to check the already-scheduled meetings in the account to make sure that there isn’t a meeting scheduled for your desired date and time. If there is a conflicting meeting scheduled for the date and time that you need, you can write to AskAFS@afsusa.org and we can schedule a meeting for you in a staff account.
- If you’d like the meeting to be recorded, you can set it to record automatically in the meeting reservation, or you can start recording during the meeting. You can choose whether you’d like it to record on your computer or in the cloud where it can be retrieved later in the account. We recommend recording in the cloud for easier access and support after the meeting has ended.
Troubleshooting tips
- If you're having trouble logging into your regional AFS zoom account, never attempt to reset the password because multiple teams share the account.
- Make sure that you have manually logged out of your personal zoom account first before attempting to sign into the AFS accounts **OR** just use a different browser that doesn't have your personal accounts and passwords saved.
- Be sure that you are attempting to log in at https://afsusa.zoom.us with your region’s username and password. Your personal email address and zoom password will not work.
- To have the host controls during the meeting, log into your regional account, find the meeting in the Meetings tab, and click "start meeting." All other attendees can simply join the meeting using the meeting link that you have copied and sent to them.
Any questions about scheduling a Zoom meeting can be directed to AskAFS@afsusa.org.