If you have access to a computer you can use Blackboard Collaborate to convene or attend a meeting. Any college in the state of Washington can use Blackboard Collaborate at no cost. If you wish to use it to host a meeting you might have to ensure that the remote site(s) know how to use it and have headphones and speakers on their PC that are pre-tested. But once it is setup attending a Blackboard Collaborate meeting is as simple as sending a web link (URL) in an email to attendees. 

Blackboard Collaborate is ideal for meetings with from 2-30 attendees where the use of visuals and interaction are more important. It does support audio (it supports a conference bridge inside Blackboard Collaborate or you can use an external conference bridge for audio). It also supports screen sharing so all sites can see the same documents, a chat window, audio over the internet, and the content can be recorded for later playback.

Once setup, Blackboard Collaborate is an excellent way to conduct meetings.

The Technology Services Department at Walla Walla Community College has headset speaker/microphones available at little or no cost. These are required to participate in a Blackboard Collaborate session.

A free conference call service is also available.  It supports up to 97 callers and is easy to setup.  Simply go to  http://www.freeconferencecall.com/signin.asp  and follow the instructions

Blackboard Collaborate Web-based Conferencing

• Participating in an Blackboard Collaborate Meeting
• Moderating a Blackboard Collaborate Session
• Setting Connection Speed
• Using the Audio Setup Wizard