Planning meetings

A meeting starts as a draft. While it is a draft you can shape the agenda, invite people and check the timing; nobody gets a mail until you click Send invitations.

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Create a meeting

Change any of these later with Edit on the meeting. A closed or cancelled meeting can no longer be edited.

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Participant roles

Every person on a meeting has a role. Change it in the menu next to the person. A meeting takes up to 500 participants.

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Repeat a meeting as a series

Any one-off meeting that is still a draft or planned can become the first date of a series. Each date of a series is a meeting of its own, with its own agenda, participants and note. Collabase keeps the next date ready. Later dates are created only when someone does something with them, such as handing a topic to them. A new date starts with the series’ participants and agenda template, plus every item that was left open at the last closed date. If the previous date was never closed, its open items are not carried over, and the meeting says so. Times are kept in the time zone the series was planned in. A weekly meeting at 09:00 stays at 09:00 across the change to and from summer time. A monthly series on the 31st skips months without that day; choose Last day of the month if you want the meeting every month.

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Work with a series

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Build the agenda

The agenda is a list of items, optionally grouped into sections. An agenda holds up to 50 sections and 200 items. Organizers and co-organizers edit the agenda. Turn on Participants may edit the agenda in the meeting form (Edit) to let every invited person edit it, and to let them record outcomes and decisions during the meeting. If two people save the same item at the same time, the second one sees Someone saved this item while you were editing, with the other version next to their own. Choose Use their version or Save mine over it. Nothing is lost silently.

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Plan the time

The bar above the agenda adds up the estimates and compares them with the meeting’s duration, for example 70 of 60 min and 10 min too much.

• Buffer keeps part of the meeting free: 0, 10, 15, 20 or 25 percent. The bar shows how many minutes that keeps free.
• Each item shows its expected start time, such as about 10:20.
• Items that no longer fit into the meeting are marked No longer fits.
• Items without estimate counts the items that have no estimate. They count as zero minutes.

The warnings use text and a symbol, not only colour.

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Estimates from earlier meetings

In a series, Collabase remembers how long each item took when the timer ran on it. When you edit an item, the estimate field shows Similar items in this series took 20 min (4 times) if at least three earlier items had nearly the same title. Click Use to take the value over; it is a suggestion, nothing changes until you save. Titles count as similar when they share most of their words; numbers are ignored, so Sprint 12 review and Sprint 13 review are the same topic. The value is the middle of the earlier times, rounded to 5 minutes. Only people who may edit the agenda see it. Organizers also see a hint in the series overview when items take clearly longer than estimated on average, for example Items take 40 % longer than estimated on average. It appears once at least five items have both an estimate and a timer time.

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Topics from participants

Everyone invited to a meeting can propose a topic with Suggest a topic. What happens next depends on the meeting’s settings and status. Organizers review waiting topics with Add to agenda, Park (moves it to the backlog) or Decline, with a reason for the person who suggested it. That person gets a notification with the result. A topic suggested while the meeting is running goes to the backlog for a later meeting. A closed or cancelled meeting takes no topics.

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The backlog

The backlog holds topics for later. A series has its own backlog; a standard one-off meeting in a space uses the space’s backlog, which everyone who can read the space sees. A private meeting, a meeting linked to a project and a meeting without a space have no backlog, so their topics never show up where more people can read them.

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Hand an item on

To put an open item on another meeting’s agenda directly, click Hand on on the item. Choose the Next occurrence of the series or Another meeting, then Copy (the item stays here as a record) or Move (it leaves this agenda). An item that already has outcomes, decisions or tracked time can only be copied. An item handed on three times or more shows Handed on 3×, as a hint that it may need a decision rather than another slot.

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Prepare with your briefing

On a meeting that is still ahead, everyone who can open it can click Prepare briefing in Your briefing. It shows the agenda with the expected start of each item, marks your own items with Yours, links the work items and pages attached to each item, and lists Your open tasks from earlier meetings. If an administrator switched on the AI briefing, a short written summary comes with it. Only you see it, and it is not saved. See AI and privacy.

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Find open topics

When you plan an agenda, click Find open topics (the sparkle button next to Add section). Collabase lists what the agenda may still need: Topics whose title is already on the agenda are left out. Only you see the list, and nothing is added until you click Add to agenda on a topic. A meeting without a space gets no work items. If an administrator switched on AI order for open topics, Collabase AI puts the most pressing topics first and gives a short reason for each. Otherwise the list comes in the order above. See AI and privacy.

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Templates

A template stores an agenda and the invited members, so a recurring kind of meeting does not start from zero. External addresses and the duration are not stored.

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The agenda of a series

A series has its own template, which new dates start with. To change it, adjust the agenda of an open date and choose Use agenda for the series in the Templates menu. Dates that were already created show The series template changed. Take it over? with Take over, which adds only missing sections and items, or Keep as is.