Hold a meeting


	Hold a meeting Minimum version: FirstClass 8.0 Audience: Business professionals Experience: Features we use: instant messaging/chat room calendars, public Summary Want a way to reduce high phone bills due to teleconferenced meetings? Consider holding your meeting online using FirstClass. You can still schedule the meeting and book resources, hand out materials, and record the meeting minutes, but these steps are made easier using FirstClass. Take a look at this flowchart that compares how you would traditionally handle a team meeting with how you would use FirstClass to handle the same meeting. Example Stuart McLaren is the project leader for Husky Planes' Commuter Project. Since some members of the Commuter Project team work in the European office, Stuart holds meetings through FirstClass instant messaging. When Stuart decides to have a meeting, he follows these steps. BEFORE THE MEETING Stuart can schedule the meeting, invite team members, book the boardroom and any other required resources, all at the same time. This means he doesn't have to run around trying to coordinate everyone's schedules and make sure the boardroom and other resources will be available. He can do all of this from one location. STEP 1: Schedule team meeting Stuart schedules a weekly team meeting in the group calendar in the Commuter Project conference by creating a new event. STEP 2: Book the venue FirstClass lets you reserve venues by posting your request in a resource calendar. Stuart reserves the company's mid-sized boardroom using the Scheduling tab. STEP 3: Invite participants Once he knows that the venue is available, Stuart invites the project members by entering their names on the Scheduling tab. From this screen, he can see who may have a time conflict and he can adjust the time and date as needed. The meeting will then appear in each of their personal calendars. STEP 4: Distribute materials At the same time, Stuart attaches any documents to the event that may be required reading for the meeting. IN THE MEETING STEP 5: Take minutes Just before the meeting, Stuart opens a new instant messaging session and selects Save transcript on the setup tab. At the end of the meeting, the transcript will be automatically forwarded to his Mailbox. He doesn't have to worry about making sure somebody took accurate minutes, because it was automatically recorded. STEP 6: Hold the meeting At the scheduled time of the meeting, Stuart invites each member of the Commuter Project team. The instant messaging sessions provide a forum similar to a boardroom or teleconferencing setting, where each member can contribute. Here is the transcript that was automatically forwarded to his Mailbox. AFTER THE MEETING STEP 7: Distribute the minutes Following the meeting, Stewart reviews what the project team discussed and then forwards it to the meeting participants. Variations If he prefers, Stuart could post the transcript to the Commuter Project conference instead of sending it to each participant.