Conference calls

[tom_newton]

Some confusion here between the conference call facility, multiway calling, and conference phones

Conference call: being able to make a call into a number and expect your buddies to be there in a conference "room" - this is easily achievable on a low usage basis with something like powwownow, which is free setup, but costly calls. Gotomeeting offers conference audio (you don't need the client) at national rate calls, but you will need an account (not mega money). Otherwise most good phone systems (and some bad ones) will do this, but it is often an extra licence

Multiway calling: This is where you can call 2 or more people and all talk together. There's no "auto-organiser" and you can't dial in. Many SIP (IP phone) endpoints support this. Cheaper ones just do 2-way, I think I have 3 or 4 way on my endpoint here and it was £150ish.

Conference phone hardware "fancy speakerphone" - usually offers multiway calling too. Polycom's IP7000 is by far the best, that's the IP version, they do do a POTS one. They're about 700 notes mind.

[TechMonkey]

Your PBX may be able to do it all ready, ours can but I don't know about limitations as we don't use it.

An online offering maybe the best option, if your governors are a willing bunch. As others have said, Skype, or Google+ Hangout. WebEx are good for webinar style shared meetings, though that may be overkill. Join.me may do it if it works at your school.

[Little-Miss]

Just to clarify the situation a bit.

Our Chair is a business lady. Spends a lot of time in Germany. Currently just does it over speaker phone. Also good for the likes of parent governors who maybe cant get child care so could be more than just the one person.

Cheap and cheeful....or free! But sure i can stretch to one of those speakers...

[jmak]

Some confusion here between the conference call facility, multiway calling, and conference phones
.

Spot on - if you're planning to have one person remote and several round a real table in a room, you need a proper speaker phone, otherwise the people on the end of the phone won't hear half of what's said. The polycoms are top notch and you can pick them up on eBay from around £100

[Geoff]

The polycoms are top notch and you can pick them up on eBay from around £100

If you know where I can get a Polycom Soundstation IP7000 for £100 I'd be very interested!

[jmak]

If you know where I can get a Polycom Soundstation IP7000 for £100 I'd be very interested!

Unfortunately not an IP7000, but this would be a big improvement on a normal speaker phone, which is what I've seen a lot of people doing before.

[jamesfed]

If you know where I can get a Polycom Soundstation IP7000 for £100 I'd be very interested!

I got my CX700 from eBay for £35 The guy said on the listing if you know what this is then you know what its worth...obviously no one else knew!

Either way you can get the odd lucky listing on the aforementioned online trading site.