> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://collabase.ch/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Planning meetings
> Create a meeting or a series, build the agenda with time estimates, collect topics from participants, and reuse agendas with templates.
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**.
## Create a meeting
Open **Meetings** and click **New meeting**.
Enter a title, date, time and duration. Choose a space, and optionally a project, if the meeting belongs to a team. See the field table below.
Click **Create draft**. The meeting opens. You are its organizer.
Under **Participants**, search for members or type the email address of an external person and click **Invite**. Invitations are sent only once you click **Send invitations**, described in [Invitations](/docs/meetings/invitations).
| Field | Description |
| - | - |
| **Title** | Shown in the list, in the calendar invitation and as the title of the meeting note. |
| **Space**, **Project** | Optional. A meeting in a space can be seen by the space's readers (unless it is private), and its meeting note is stored there. You need read access to a space to place a meeting in it. |
| **Date**, **Time** | In your own time zone, which you set on the **Preferences** tab of your profile. A date in the past is allowed, for example to record a meeting afterwards. |
| **Duration (minutes)** | Between 1 and 720 minutes. |
| **Where** | **On site** with a **Location / room**, or a video service (**Microsoft Teams**, **Zoom**, **Google Meet**, **Webex**, **Other video link**) with its **Video link**. |
| **Visibility** | **Standard**: invited people and everyone who can read the space. **Private**: only invited people. |
| **Agenda** | **Participants may edit the agenda**, **Submissions go straight onto the agenda** and the **Submission deadline**. See [Topics from participants](#topics-from-participants). |
Change any of these later with **Edit** on the meeting. A closed or cancelled meeting can no longer be edited.
The lists under **Today**, **Upcoming**, **Past** and **Series** show the meetings you are invited to. A member who only reads the space reaches a standard meeting through a link, for example from a work item, a page or the decision register.
### Participant roles
Every person on a meeting has a role. Change it in the menu next to the person.
| Role | What it means |
| - | - |
| **Organizer** | Owns the meeting and appears as the organizer in calendars. There is exactly one. Use **Make organizer** to hand the meeting to someone else; the previous organizer stays on as co-organizer. |
| **Co-organizer** | Has the same rights as the organizer, except handing the meeting over. External people cannot be co-organizers. |
| **Participant** | Is invited, answers the invitation and can suggest topics. |
| **Optional** | Like participant, marked as optional in the invitation. |
A meeting takes up to 500 participants.
## 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.
On the meeting, click **Repeat**.
Choose **Daily**, **Weekly** or **Monthly** under **Repeats** and how often (**Every …**). For weekly series, pick the **Weekdays**. For monthly series, choose under **Monthly on** between a day of the month, the **Last day of the month**, or a weekday such as the second Tuesday or the last Friday.
Under **Ends**, choose **Never**, **After a number of occurrences** or **On a date**. **Next dates** previews the coming meetings.
Click **Create series**. The rule must include the meeting's own date.
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.
### Work with a series
| Action | How |
| - | - |
| **See all dates** | Click **Show series** on any date. The series view lists the dates in date order, 50 per page, with status and a link to each meeting note. |
| **Move between dates** | Use **Previous occurrence** and **Next occurrence** on the meeting. |
| **See what was left last time** | The **Last occurrence** panel on a date lists the items left open and the outcomes of the date before. |
| **Move or cancel one date** | Open that date and edit or cancel it. The other dates stay as they are. |
| **Change how the series repeats** | On a date, click **Change rule**, set the new rule and **Applies from**, then click **Check**. Planned dates that no longer fit the new rule are listed; confirming cancels them and moves their open topics to the series backlog. Dates already held are never changed. |
| **End a series** | Use **Change rule** and set **Ends** to a date. |
A date of a series cannot be deleted, only cancelled. Otherwise it would come back with the next calculation of the series.
## Build the agenda
The agenda is a list of items, optionally grouped into sections.
| Action | How |
| - | - |
| **Add an item** | Type a title under **Agenda** and click **Add**. |
| **Add a section** | Click **Add section**. Items can be dragged into it. |
| **Edit an item** | Open it to set **Title**, **Description**, **Owner**, **Estimate in minutes** (1 to 720) and **Notes**. Click **Save item**. |
| **Reorder** | Drag an item or section, or use **Move item up** / **Move item down** from the keyboard. |
| **Delete** | Use **Delete item** or **Delete section**. Items of a deleted section stay on the agenda without a section. Decisions recorded at a deleted item stay in the register, without the item. |
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.
## 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.
### 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.
## 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.
| Setting | Effect |
| - | - |
| **Submissions go straight onto the agenda** | Off: the topic waits under **Suggested topics** until an organizer decides. On: the topic goes onto the agenda at once. |
| **Submission deadline** | **Until the start**, or 1, 24, 48 or 72 hours before. After the deadline the meeting takes no new topics. |
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.
## 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.
| Action | How |
| - | - |
| **Park an item** | On an agenda item, click **Move to backlog**. Its notes, links and outcomes move with it. |
| **Take an item back** | In the **Backlog** panel, click **Take onto agenda**. |
| **Spot old topics** | Topics parked for more than 90 days are marked **Parked for over 90 days**. |
### 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.
## 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](/docs/meetings/ai-and-privacy#ai-briefing-before-a-meeting).
## 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:
| Source | What it is | **Add to agenda** does |
| - | - | - |
| **Open from last time** | Items the series' last closed meeting left open and nobody handed on. | Copies the item, with its notes and links. |
| **Parked** | Topics in the series' backlog, and in the space's backlog if you can read the space. | Takes the topic onto the agenda. |
| **Overdue work items** | Unfinished work items of the participants whose due date has passed, in the meeting's project or, without a project, in its space. Only those you can open. | Adds an item named after the work item and links it. |
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](/docs/meetings/ai-and-privacy#ai-order-for-open-topics).
## 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.
On a meeting, open the **Templates** menu and choose **Save as template**. Give it a **Name**. Only you see it until you share it.
On another meeting, choose **Apply template** and pick one. Missing agenda items and invitees are added; nothing on the meeting is changed or removed. People who cannot access the meeting are skipped and listed.
In the template list, choose **Share in space** (needs space admin rights in that space) or **Share with everyone** (needs instance admin rights). **Keep for myself** takes the sharing back.
### 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**.
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