After declaring a state of emergency, the Governor relieved public bodies from the prohibition regarding use of telephonic or electronic communications to conduct meetings and required them to make provisions to ensure public access to the meeting of the public body for members of the public through adequate, alternative means.

Here are some resources for conducting virtual meetings:

• RI Attorney General's Quick Guide to the Governors executive order impacting public meetings.
• The Department of Business Regulations' webinar from September 17 on Holding Successful Virtual Public Meetings.
• DBR's Guide for Holding Public Meetings via Video Conference: A Best Practices Guide.
• The Department of Business Regulations has more information on their website here regarding virtual public meetings.
• All of the Governor's executive order can be found on her website here.
• Check Zoom Service Status: https://status.zoom.us/. You can also see the incidents reports and how they were resolved.