Introduction
Within an agenda, you can manage attendance at two levels:
at the meeting level, where you can see and manage all attendees at a meeting in once place, add or remove people as attendees of the meeting, deal with apologies and manage attendance of individual attendees across multiple items; or
at the item level, where you can see and manage all attendees at that item, add or remove people as attendees to that single item and assign presenters.
This article explains how to manage attendance at the meeting level. For a detailed article on how to manage attendance at the item level, click here.
Worth knowing: Meeting and item attendance is inter-related
Meeting and item attendance are linked concepts - for example:
if you remove an attendee from a meeting at the meeting level, then that attendee will be removed from all items also; and
if an attendee was only attending 1 item and you remove that attendee from that item at the item level, then that attendee will be removed from the meeting also.
The Attendance Tab
To see an overview of meeting attendance, click the Attendance tab shown below:
The attendance tab provides you with a detailed overview of the key information you need to know about attendance at the meeting, including:
each person attending
their role (Chair, Member, Standing Attendee or Attendee)
their attendance (In full, Partial or Apology)
where applicable, attendance details.
Worth knowing: How attendance is displayed
Attendance is displayed in two different ways: either exhaustively (i.e. every item a person is attending is listed) or by exception (i.e. only items a person is NOT attending are listed).
attendance of Chairs, Members and Standing Attendees is displayed by exception
attendance of attendees added to a meeting (i.e. via the process described on this page) are displayed by exception
attendees of attendees added to an item are displayed exhaustively
Adding an attendee to the meeting
To add an attendee to the meeting:
click the + Add Attendee button
start typing the name of the person you want to add and select that person from the dropdown
Select whether the person will attend All items, Most items or Just some items from the dropdown
click Save.
Choosing between All items, Most items and Just some items
When adding an attendee to a meeting, you should choose the options above that best describes how that person will be attending the meeting. The table below explains the differences between the options:
Option | Result | Presentation |
All items | Attendee will be added to all current items in the meeting.
If new items are added to the meeting, this attendee will be added automatically. | In the Attendance tab and exported documents, the attendee's attendance will be presented by exception (i.e. "All items except for item X, Y & Z") |
Most items | Attendee will be added to all current items in the meeting and you will be taken to a screen prompting you to remove that attendee from any items they are NOT attending.
If new items are added to the meeting, this attendee will be added automatically. | In the Attendance tab and exported documents, the attendee's attendance will be presented by exception (i.e. "All items except for item X, Y & Z") |
Just some items | Attendee will not be added to any current items and you will be taken to a screen prompting you to add that attendee to any items they are attending.
This attendee will not be automatically added to newly created items. | In the Attendance tab and exported documents, the attendee's attendance will be presented as an exhaustive list of all items that attendee is attending. |
When should I add an attendee at the meeting level?
When you add an attendee at the meeting level you are establishing the principle that that person is attending the entire meeting, subject only to specific exceptions.
As a result:
when you first add a person as an attendee at the meeting level, they are automatically added as an attendee to every item on the meeting agenda at that time; and
when you add new items to the agenda, that person will be automatically added as an attendee of those new items.
Accordingly, as a general rule you would add a person as an attendee at the meeting level if you expect them to be attending more than half the items in the meeting and you are happy for them to be added to new items by default.
If you only want to add a person as an attendee for selected items, this is best done by initially adding them at the item level. For a detailed article on how to manage attendance at the item level, click here.
Managing attendance of individual attendees
Within the Attendance tab you can manage the attendance of individual attendees by clicking the edit icon next to the relevant attendee:
This will launch the Edit Attendance screen for that attendee, from where you can manage that attendee's attendance in a number of ways.
Setting Overall Attendance
Once you launch the Edit Attendance screen for an attendee, you will see a dropdown where you can manage that attendee's overall attendance as shown below:
The attendance options available are shown below:
Attendance Option | Who it can apply to | Description |
In Full | Members (i.e. chairs, member or standing attendees) or Attendees | This person is attending every item of the meeting. Setting a person to in full attendance will mean that they are added as attendees to any items they are not currently marked as attending and that they will be added as attendees to any new items added by default. |
Partial | Members (i.e. chairs, member or standing attendees) or Attendees | This person is attending some but not all items in the meeting. A member who is marked as partial will still be added as an attendee of any new items added by default, whereas an attendee who is marked as partial will not. |
Apology | Members (i.e. chairs, member or standing attendees) only | This member is not attending the meeting at all. Setting a member as an apology will remove them as an attendee of all items and will note them as an apology in the agenda export. |
None | Attendees only | Marking an attendee's attendance as none means they are not, in fact, an attendee for this meeting and will remove them from the meeting entirely. |
To change an attendee's overall attendance, make the appropriate selection from the dropdown and then click Save.
Managing Partial Attendance
If you set an attendee's overall attendance to Partial you will see two columns appear, as shown below:
To adjust the attendee's attendance:
drag and drop agenda items from one column to another as required:
when finished, click Save.