Lock Meeting by Default

[MrBeeDub]

Can I Lock Meeting by default?

My participants get credit for attending at least 50 out of a 60-minute presentation. The problem is that when I log in to the meeting, people are already in the waiting room (some up to 30 minutes early) so they only need to sit through part of the meeting to get credit. Is there a way to lock the meeting by default so participants can't join until I join a few minutes before our scheduled start time and unlock the meeting, then they go into the waiting room until the meeting starts?

I like the Lock Meeting feature, but I wish I could lock it by default for every meeting. 

[Frank_TB]

You could disable "Join before host" and enable the waiting room.

https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/202828525-Allow-participants-to-join-before-host#:~:text=I....

[MrBeeDub]

"Join before host" is already disabled and host and co-hosts log in to the meeting about 30 minutes early to prep. That's when participants join and sit in the enabled waiting room. Unfortunately, the software counts their time in the waiting room as "participation time" so they can leave the meeting early and still receive full credit attending at least 50 minutes.

I guess a workaround to having the "Lock Meeting" default on all meetings is that as soon as I log in as a host, I hit "Lock Meeting" until 5 or 10 minutes before the meeting starts.