I asked this same question about four of five months ago and got absolutely nowhere, but then again, Hangout was just barely in the beta test and nobody had a firm handle on how it worked.  Here goes.

I want to start a video chat with my committee members that are scattered from the Mexican border to the Oregon border, from the Pacific Ocean to the Nevada/Arizona state line.  They are relative technotards, which means that if I start having to make them push too many buttons it isn't going to work or they are going to get discouraged and not even try.  Let's start with a REALLY SIMPLE example of ONE person besides me in the chat room or whatever Hangout calls them.

First, how do *I* test my own system to make sure that I've got all the levers, gears, bells, and whistles installed correctly.  That is, I want to "chat" with one or more people currently using the system just to be sure that the hardware and software on my machine are up to speed.  How do I do that?

Then, I've got ONE committee member that  want to chat with.  Let's give him a name and an email addy.  That would be Ben at email bens...@goofball.com.  Ben doesn't know a circle from a rectangle.  He doesn't have a Google account of any sort nor does he really want to install any software unless he has to.  How do I get into a video chat with Ben using the simplest possible method?

If we can do that, then how do I also invite Mary  (mary...@fanark.com) into the same chat with Ben and I?  If we can figure out how to do these three things simply and quickly, I'm on my way to really learning the system.

Thanks for any help you can give

Jim