The Meeting Standby functionality allows group leaders to invite waitlisted members into a meeting if seats are open (due to no-shows). Members on the meeting's waiting list are invited to enter a virtual "standby room" where they wait until seats are offered. The group leader determines the number of seats to offer based on the space available in the meeting. These seats are then offered to members in the standby room in waiting list order.
Activation
Meeting Standby is automatically activated when the Enable Waiting List option is checked (turned on). The Enable Waiting List option can be found on the Create a Meeting page, Create a Meeting from Template page, and on the Update Meeting page.
What Group Leaders See
When group leaders click the Join button on any meeting calendar to enter their meeting, they will be brought to the Join Meeting page as usual. On the Join Meeting page, group leaders will now see a new menu option called Settings. This is found at the top right corner of the page.
The Settings menu option gives group leaders quick access to the meeting registration list. It is also the location to enter the Meeting Standby Room.
Ten minutes before the start of the meeting, the host has the opportunity to turn on the Standby Room for members. Hosts cannot open the Standby Room prior to ten minutes before the start of the meeting. The Standby Room will remain open until ten minutes after the meeting’s start time. At that time, the Meeting Standby Room will automatically be closed, and access will be denied to both members and group leaders.
Upon selecting the Standby Room option within 10 minutes of the start of the meeting, your Manage Standby Room page will be opened in a new window. On this page, you will input how many seats are being offered to members in the standby room. This page will also display the number of members waiting in the standby room.
To offer seats, the group leader selects the total number of seats to be offered in the section titled Seats for the Standby Room. Clicking on Save activates the process of offering these seats to members in the standby room.
The number of seats can be increased at any time that the standby room is open. To increase the number of seats being offered, the group leader can simply change the number to the new quantity of available seats. Clicking on Save activates the process of offering the additional seats to members in the standby room.
What Members See
Ten minutes before the start of the meeting, members on the waiting list will be invited to enter the standby room. A Join Standby button will appear on all meeting calendars within the member module.
The waiting area on the Meeting Standby Room page is where all the action will take place. Here, members will be able to get a real-time status of the group leader’s actions.
Standby Status
The Standby Status bar gives the member a general status of what is taking place.
If no seats have been offered yet, a yellow status bar will be displayed, showing the following message.
If seats are being offered, a green status bar will be displayed, showing the following message.
Seat Offering
Below the Standby Status bar is the seat offering area. Once a seat is offered to the member, the message will change from “We are monitoring for open seats” to “You are Invited.”
The member must click on Join to accept the seat and complete the meeting registration process.
“How the Standby Room Works” Box
An informational box is also displayed on the Meeting Standby Room page to explain to members how the standby room works. This is found on the right side of the screen for desktops and below the waiting area for mobile phones.
Closing the Standby Room
The Meeting Standby Room will remain open until ten minutes after the meeting’s start time. At that time, the Meeting Standby Room will automatically be closed, and access will be denied to both members and group leaders.