Looking for an incredible experience at your next town meeting? We're here for you! Just follow these tips and suggestions....
Test Your Clickers
Test #1: Press any button on your clickers to wake them up. If they don’t wake up (there are no symbols/icons on the screen), the battery may be dead and needs to be replaced.
Test #2: If the keypad wakes up and if a base receiver (antenna) is plugged into the computer, even if a vote isn’t open yet, a signal strength icon (antenna) will appear in the top left corner.
If you press any button (1A – 5E), you should see a letter on the display, but no “OK” will appear to confirm the vote.
Test #3: Open a vote (any vote) in your TownVOTE software and vote from any keypad in participant list you defined (e.g., 1 – 500). You should do this close to the receiver, but also from every corner of the venue to test for distance and ‘dead spots’.
You should see a number (not a letter) and “OK” will appear when the vote has been received.
Download the display notifications guide here:
Do You Need Our Help On Site?
We are available to help you with your town meeting and take care of the equipment setup and operating the voting software. This is a paid service and cost will depend on the number of nights your town meeting will last.
At no cost to you, we will consult with you on how to best implement the voting system, set up multiple rooms, etc.
In cases where multiple rooms, even multiple buildings need to be connected, please let us know well ahead of time, so that we can be as effective as possible and make everything happen for you in a timely fashion.
Replace Batteries
Watch for a ‘low battery’ indicator in the top-right corner. The indicator only shows that a battery is low on energy, but does not show HOW MUCH energy is left. Therefore the keypad can last another meeting, but it might not.
It’s wise to replace batteries in all clickers if more than 10% show a low battery indicator.
Avoid buying batteries in retail locations and retail packaging – they’re expensive, small (4 to 12-pack), and very hard to open (childproof).
Instead, we recommend a few excellent vendors that sell them in bulk packaging (tray) for much less than at Walmart or Walgreens.
Oh, an only buy brand names: Panasonic, Maxell, Toshiba, Energizer, Duracell. The no-name coin cells don’t last nearly as long as they should.
Best Byte pricing starts at $0.25 (click here)
Battery Junction pricing starts at $0.34 (click here)
Convert your Warrant to a Meeting Agenda
This is best done from a Word (DOCX) format of the Warrant, but PDF will work with just a few more formatting steps, as well.
Copy each Article, or Motion from the Warrant to the Agenda page in TownVOTE and when you’re finished, don’t forget to Export the Agenda to a JSON backup file, so you can restore it on the same, or a different/backup computer.
You can also send us your Warrant (best in Word DOC) and we’ll convert it for you, so that you just import it into the Agenda and run your meeting in minutes!
Renew Your Maintenance Plan
The Meridia Maintenance Plan is completely optional, and even if you don’t renew it, all your clickers and desktop software will work in offline mode forever.
However, with an active Maintenance Plan, you can rely on:
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Security & Software Updates
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Live Training & Support (phone, Zoom)
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Online Services (e.g., Hybrid Voting)
Just log into your account and if your account is expired, click the Renew button at the top of the screen, or if you need an invoice to pay the bill, contact us and we’ll send you one right away.
Update TownVOTE Software
Keep your TownVOTE software up-to-date to receive the latest features, bug fixes, and quality-of-life improvements.
Download the latest version here or click the button below:
