Software tool for organizing meetings?

November 4, 2005 8:20 AM

Anybody know of a good software tool for organizing and coordinating meetings?

I'm a member of a volunteer political organization, and coordinating everyone's schedules for meetings (lots of them, every month) can be a real hassle. Lots of scheduling conflicts, constantly changing schedules, and wide variance in computer skills makes me wish there were some sort of online tool (preferably free) where people could input the dates/times they are available for a meeting, and a meeting organizer could then select certain people from a list and be presented with a list of possible meeting times.

PC-based is fine, but I'd prefer something net-based--the flurry of group emails is starting to get a little maddening!

posted by halcyon_daze to computers & internet (6 comments total)

A Microsoft Exchange server with Outlook clients is what my workplaces uses. It allows users to:

* View calendars of others to see when they are free.
* Accept, reject, or propose new meeting times.
* Adds accepted meetings to your calendar, creating a reminder in the process.

Unfortunately this non-free solution works only if everyone uses Outlook and keeps their calendar up to date. I believe their are open source alternatives but I haven't investigated them myself. Perhaps you could Google "Open Source Outlook" or "Personal Information Manager (PIM)"?
posted by hendrixson at 9:12 AM on November 4, 2005

I am in love with iCal, but it is mac software and it sounds like you need something for windows. I've heard great things about Mozilla Sunbird. Also Yahoo! Calendars can be integrated with your existing Outlook software so you might want to look into that.
posted by deafweatherman at 9:31 AM on November 4, 2005

Related thread
posted by deafweatherman at 9:33 AM on November 4, 2005

Thanks, deafweatherman. (Thanks to everyone else for responding, too! )

Currently testing out when2meet.com from the thread you posted. If it works, it's pretty much exactly what I was looking for.

I'll post the results of the test.

(If anyone else knows of a solution similar to when2meet.com, by all means post it.)
posted by halcyon_daze at 10:13 AM on November 4, 2005

Check out WebExOne.
posted by bob bisquick at 12:03 PM on November 4, 2005

Posted it in the other thread, but we use pointment a lot. Works great.
posted by blag at 3:56 PM on November 4, 2005