[Important] Zoom Accounts Through WNCC Ending July 31st
July 18, 2022
Friends In Faith,
After careful consideration, the Office of Church Development and IT Services has determined that we will be unable to extend the Zoom licenses offered to churches during the pandemic beyond our current agreement (which runs through July 31st, 2022).
Our original contract was based on the Conference purchasing 500 licenses per year. From our survey, only 145 people responded - with only 129 licenses requested. Neither the economics, nor the IT support required make continuing this arrangement feasible. We recognize this will increase the cost of Zoom access for individual churches slightly, however, this was going to happen anyway.
If you have any questions about the decisions, feel free to contact Rev Rob Hutchinson, Director of Church Development.
To help ease the transition, the Conference IT Department has developed and tested a simple process to convert your current Zoom account that is licensed under the Conference to your own license that can be controlled by you or your church. Please see those directions below.
------
This change affects ALL accounts held under the WNCC account as our contract was year to year and so all accounts will end July 31st, which is how we had you purchase licenses (August - July with prorate if purchased after August).
Beginning July 31st, 2022, IT services will begin unlinking your account from WNCC's. This unlinking will transfer ownership over your account to you and disable any additions. During tests, unlinking did not trigger any emails or notifications. You will be able to see the differences by logging into your account at zoom.us.
This change will convert your account to a single basic account. Zoom will begin limiting your account to 40-minute meetings and limit the number of people who can join, unless you upgrade.
If you do not wish to upgrade, then there is nothing you need to do.
Your scheduled meetings will transfer to your new account, but any saved recordings, whiteboards, and anything else held on your account will not. Meeting links should not change. Please ensure that you have downloaded everything from your account (guide here) before July 31st.
If you wish to upgrade your account to a pro (100 users and unlimited meetings) membership (or business), you can go to Admin > Account Management > Billing and click on "Upgrade Account." You will only be able to do this after we make the transfer.
Zoom will then guide you through the process of adding your credit card information and will convert your account to a pro license. Please note that Zoom Pro (100 users and unlimited meetings) charges $12.50 per account per month if purchased yearly. This is only a few dollars more than the discount we got for a bulk buy and what IT Services recommends for most churches. You can also purchase any additions (Webinar, Large Meetings, extra storage) there.
If you have multiple accounts, you can manage those accounts from a single login. After you upgrade to a pro or business license, go to Admin > User Management > Users, and you can add each account to your account. The benefits include making policy changes that affect all your accounts, and if you have enough, Zoom may work with you to offer a slight discount.
If you run into any technical issues/questions or wish to migrate your account sooner, please feel free to reach out to IT Services at it@wnccumc.org.
Thank you,
Rob Hutchinson, Director of Church Development
Chris Hampton, Director of IT Services