If you plan to have an audio-only conference, you can use Zoom. Zoom is available at no cost to members of the Brown community. It's usually used for video/web conferencing, but can easily be adapted to audio-only use.

There are two ways to use Zoom for audio only:

Method 1: Use your Personal Audio Conference (PAC)

With your Brown Zoom account, you get a personal phone and meeting number you can use anytime! 

The benefit is that this number stays the same and doesn't require scheduling a meeting. The downside is that you have to enter a host key to start the meeting, and the meeting can't start without this key. 

To use your Personal Audio Conference:

1. Log into brown.zoom.us.
2. Follow these instructions: Getting Started With Personal Audio Conference.

Note that the host key, listed at the bottom of the page, can be customized in your Profile page if you want an easier-to-remember number.

Method 2: Schedule a Meeting

Another method is to schedule a Zoom meeting and only share the audio information in your calendar invite. 

The benefit is that nobody has to enter a host key, so this is good for meetings that don't have a set list of participants (or in which the host is always running late!) It's also an option if you're setting up meetings on others' behalf and want your Personal Audio Conference line to be available for another use at the same time. The downside is that you have to schedule the meeting, which takes more typing, and you can't prevent people from joining before the host is ready.

1. Log into brown.zoom.us.
2. Go to My Meetings > Schedule a New Meeting and enter your meeting information and schedule.
3. Make sure the "Enable Join before Host" setting is CHECKED.
4. Save your meeting.
5. Click the "Copy the Invitation" link and copy the phone numbers and meeting ID only. This is the information you would share with attendees.

It's very important that Enable Join before Host is checked for your meeting. Otherwise, it's not possible to start the meeting using phones only.