About the OWL and Hybrid City Meetings

All City meetings this week are in person because the OWL, the device that enables Zoom meetings, has ceased functioning. Today, an email from mayor's aide Michael Hofmann, providing an update on the situation, found its way to Gossips. I share it here, for the benefit of those readers who prefer to attend City meetings remotely.

At Friday's Historic Preservation Commission meeting, our Meeting OWL experienced a complete technical failure. The issue appears to be related to the micro USB port embedded in the base of the device, resulting in its inability to connect to a device running the virtual meeting.

After consulting with OWL Labs' technical support on this problem, the only possible resolution is a complete replacement of the device. I am pleased to report that OWL Labs is replacing the OWL, under warranty, free of charge, and upgrading us to a newer model. The new Meeting OWL is not yet shipped as of the time of writing this email, but once it is I will notify the group of its expected arrival time.

As you know, we have restricted meetings this week to be in-person only because of this technical issue. I am hopeful that we will have the new OWL in hand for our meetings next week (Informal Common Council, Planning Board, Historic Preservation Commission), but it is possible that we may have to extend the restriction on hybrid meetings depending on shipping times.