These are some general guidelines to explain how a protocol chat works. Please make sure to review these before attending a protocol chat so that you can get the most out of it.

The purpose of a protocol chat is to give a guest speaker the opportunity to give a presentation and to give the participants an opportunity to ask questions in an orderly fashion.

Usually, the chat begins with a Welcome and introduction of the guest speaker. The guest speaker will give a presentation on a particular topic. Then, PainAid staff will open up for questions.

In order to give everyone a turn, anyone with a question or a comment will just type a "?" for question or a "!" for a comment and wait to be called upon.

A PainAid staff person will then call on each person in turn.

The participant will ask their question and type either /ga (for go ahead) or /end to indicate that they are finished with their question.

The guest speaker will respond and conclude with /ga or /end.

The PainAid staff will then call upon the next person for their question or comment.

Participants are asked to ask one question at a time to allow others an opportunity.

The PainAid staff will periodically list the order for upcoming questions so that participants can see where they are in line.

If a participant is unclear about the procedures during the chat, all they need to do is "whisper" a question to a PainAid staff member by checking the "whisper" box on bottom left hand corner and choose a PA (PainAid) staff member.