Inviting Guests (Proposals)

One of the most powerful features in MeetingMaker is the ability to invite users to upcoming events or meetings. Users can create a proposal, which attendees can either accept or reject, automatically letting the meeting organizer know whether or not someone plans on attending the proposed meeting. Users can also invite guests to an already created meeting.

Responding to a proposal

When someone sends a meeting proposal to you, MeetingMaker will automatically open your Messages folder, showing the new meeting under "Active Messages."

You can either immediately accept or decline the invitation based on the title, or double-click the event title to learn more about the meeting.

Once the meeting window is open, you can read information about the meeting on the Details, Guests and Options tabs. The Options screen includes the ability to respond to the meeting organizer directly through MeetingMaker. (See Proposing a new meeting for more details on these screens.) Once you have reviewed the meeting, you can accept, decline, or postpone your decision by choosing "Yes", "No", or "I'll decide later". This information is reported back to the meeting organizer upon clicking "Reply."

Once you have replied Yes, or accepted the meeting, it will be automatically saved in your calendar.

Inviting Guests (Creating a Proposal)

You can either invite guests to a meeting during the initial setup of a meeting, or by going back to an existing meeting and clicking the Guests tab.

Tip: Adding guests on this screen does not automatically send a proposal to them until you update or create the meeting at the bottom of this screen.

On this screen you'll see the general availability of all current guests. (Guests whose calendars you have access will have details visible. Guests whose calendars are not accessible to you will only be visible as busy or not busy.) To add or edit the guest list, click "Edit List"

The left side of the window lists all employees in the MeetingMaker "Public Directory". Employees are organized by department. Below is an example of an indvidual department.

Once an individual is selected, you can choose the method by which that person will be contacted. Choosing the method will add their name to the list of guests on the right and make their name grey on the left indicating that they have been added. Proposals can indicate that a meeting is required or optional, or an individual can be carbon copied or blind carbon copied to notify them about a meeting, without necessarily inviting them.

The previous screen shows that the Help Desk and Jason are available for this meeting, while Rich is not. If the meeting time can not be changed, this screen shows you who will be able to attend according to their current schedule. If the meeting time can be changed, you will have the opportunity to adjust on the next screen. Click OK to finish selecting guests.

Upon returning to the Guests tab, you will now see the selected guests with their availability displayed side-by-side. On this view, the meeting can be moved to a new time in order to take advantage of available time by draggging the outlined rectangle. When attempting to schedule a meeting for many people at once, it is sometimes easier to simply click "Auto-Pick". Auto-Pick selects the next available time for all required attendees.

The example below shows that the first available time is between 1 and 2pm, and the meeting has already been moved to this time.

If you are inviting guests from your personal address book or you wish to notify guests outside of the MeetingMaker notification system, you can click "Email Guests" to send the notification via email. Clicking "Create Meeting" will place the item on your calendar and send proposals to all invited and carbon copied guests.

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