[Pond-management-news] Proposed pond/lake "open clinic" hours

[Braig, Eugene]

Friends,

My office voice mail often backlogs with pond-inquiry messages.  That situation is even worse with COVID having exiled me from my office and routine contact with me desk phone.  I never asked my department to provide me with a cell phone (it would be cumbersome to procure one at the moment), and (as you might imagine) I'm a little reluctant to share my personal number publicly for work purposes.

I thus had an interesting epiphany late last week.  The necessity to conduct business remotely has made me into a frequent user of Zoom (and other meeting software).  I propose to set up an electronic "open clinic" for pond, lake, and aquatic science questions in general whereby I spend two hours each week at an open Zoom video meeting.  You may have seen some of the press regarding Zoom meeting being subjected to a fair amount of cyber-vandalism.  Much of that originates in the lax security practices of some Zoom users.  No worries: I take at least some precautions and in my many dozens of Zoom meetings (sometimes four or more in one day), I've never been "bombed."

For this purpose, I would use Zoom's waiting room feature (kind of like the electronic version of a waiting room at a medical doctor's clinic) to only interact with one Extension client at a time.  You could ask your questions in complete privacy, and any "bombing" with inappropriate material would thus find me as the only recipient.  I have relatively thick skin; I think I can take it.

The video nature of the software would allow you to share photos; show me aquatic plant specimens; if you're portable with internet connectivity, even to walk your pond's shoreline and show me stuff in situ; whatever.  My initial thought is for a late afternoon into early evening weekday to allow those still working away from home at least some time to potentially reach me: perhaps 4:00-6:00 pm on Tuesdays.  I like the idea and would like your thoughts.  If you'd care to reply to me personally (click braig.1 at osu.edu<mailto:braig.1 at osu.edu>), please let me know:


1.      What day of the week would you be most likely to make use of?  (I will favor weekdays because this is my day job and ordinarily conducted during the week.)

2.      What time of day would you prefer?

a.      9:00-11:00 am

b.      1:00-3:00 pm

c.      4:00-6:00 pm

d.      Some later evening block (please specify)


I look forward to your reply.

Eugene

[The Ohio State University]
Eugene C. Braig IV Program Director, Aquatic Ecosystems
Ohio State University Extension School of Environment and Natural Resources
379a Kottman Hall | 2021 Coffey Rd. Columbus, OH 43210
614-292-3823 Office | 614-292-7432 Fax
braig.1 at osu.edu<mailto:braig.1 at osu.edu> osu.edu<http://osu.edu/>
http://senr.osu.edu/our-people/eugene-braig
My listserv: https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/pond-management-news

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