THL Toolbox > Community & Communication > Scheduling Meetings
Scheduling Meetings
Contributor(s): David Germano & John Alexander
Scheduling meetings - whether in person, on the phone, or on Skype - can be tiresome even when more than two people are involved, each with their own complex schedule. Simple and free scheduling programs can make this a lot easier.
Doodle
See www.doodle.com
This is a very simple but very friendly site to use to post possible times. You then send out the URL to participants, who each post their names and check which times they are available. When complete the site tells you how many people, and which people, are available for each time.
Meeting Wizard
Meeting wizard is a free and efficient tool to find a common free time amongst participants. This is useful if you want to propose a series of alternatives, and have multiple people indicate which of those alternative times they can make. Doodle is perhaps more friendly for the task outlined above, but Meeting Wizard has additional functions. Of particular note is the situation where you want to pose available hours and then have people individually sign up for a slot.
1. Register with Meeting Wizard to create an account.
2. Login to Meeting Wizard.
3. Click the link to Create a Meeting Request.
4. Choose up to 12 possible days/times for the meeting.
5. Insert the meeting event details.
6. Review the summary report and edit as needed.
7. Push "Send Now"
8. Monitor the responses and select the optimal meeting day and time as soon as possible.
If you are using THL Collab worksites, we can also add the "Scheduling" tool to use for the same reason.
1. To offer a given range of dates, and ask people to indicate which times they can NOT make, tell all participants to do the following:
- Go to Collab site in question
- Click on SCHEDULE tool on the left hand menu
- Please add Events for all times you are NOT available for the following date range - SPECIFY DATE RANGE
- To add an Event, click on ADD in the upper menu; then in the title put “John NA” (for not available); specify the start and end time, and date, and at the bottom click on “save event”
- Please do so by this date so we can decide the date - SPECIFY DEADLINE
2. To offer a range of possible times, and ask people to indicate which times they CAN make, make a series of events corresponding to the proposed times. In the description field of each event, put two rows: "Can Attend:" and "Cannot Attend:". Then tell all participants to do the following:
- Go to Collab site in question
- Click on SCHEDULE tool on the left hand menu
- Review the proposed times for the following date range - SPECIFY DATE RANGE
- Open up each event, and in the description put your name in the "Can Attend" or "Cannot Attend" row
- Please do so by this date so we can decide the date - SPECIFY DEADLINE
3. To find a general time each week, or each month, that is used for a regular meeting, ask people to indicate which times they can NOT make by doing the following:
- Go to Collab site in question
- Click on SCHEDULE tool on the left hand menu
- Please add Events for all times you are regularly NOT available due to regular commitments such as classes, departmental meetings, etc. next semester
- to add an Event, click on ADD in the upper menu; then in the title put “John NA” (for not available); specify the start and end time, and date, and at the bottom click on “save event”
- use the week of Nov 10 (OR WHATEVER WEEK YOU WANT), but just treat it as reflecting a general week of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
- Please do so by this date so we can decide the date - SPECIFY DEADLINE