Dynamic meetings management

Introduced in OpenProject 13.1, dynamic meetings offer easier meeting management, improved agenda creation and the ability to link work packages to meetings and vice-versa.

Note

The Meetings module needs to be activated in the Project Settings to be able to create and edit meetings.

Topic	Content
Meetings in OpenProject	How to open meetings in OpenProject.
Create a new meeting	How to create a new meeting in OpenProject.
Edit a meeting	How to edit an existing meeting.
Add a work package to the agenda	How to add a work package to a meeting agenda.
Create or edit the meeting agenda	How to create or edit the agenda.
Add meeting participants	How to invite people to a meeting.
Add meeting attachments	How to add attachments to a meeting.
Send email to all participants	How to send an email to all meeting participants.
Download a meeting as an iCalendar event	How to download a meeting as an iCalendar event.
Close a meeting	How to close a meeting in OpenProject.
Re-open a meeting	How to re-open a meeting in OpenProject.
Copy a meeting	How to copy a meeting in OpenProject (recurring meetings).
Delete a meeting	How to delete a meeting in OpenProject.

Meetings in OpenProject

By selecting Meetings in the project menu on the left, you get an overview of all the meetings you have been invited to within a specific project sorted by date. By clicking on a meeting name you can view further details of the meeting.

To get an overview of the meetings across multiple projects, you can select Meetings in the global modules menu.

The menu on the left will allow you to filter for upcoming or past meetings. You can also filter the list of the meetings based on your involvement.

You can also use the meetings filters to refine the list of meetings based on the following criteria:

• Attended user - shows meetings that a specific user attended
• Author - shows meetings that a specific user created
• Invited user - shows meetings that a specific user was invited to
• Project - shows meetings for a specific project (this will only be displayed in the global module view, i.e. not within a specific project)
• Time - shows past or upcoming meetings

Tip

If you are interested in how the Meetings module is used by the OpenProject team, please take a look at this blog article.

Create and edit dynamic meetings

Create a new meeting

You can either create a meeting from within a project or from the global Meetings module.

Note

Dynamic meetings were introduced in OpenProject 13.1. At the moment, the Meetings module lets you create classic or dynamic meetings but please keep in mind that the ability to create classic meetings will eventually be removed from OpenProject.

To create a new meeting, click the green + Meeting button in the upper right corner and select if you want to create a dynamic or a classic meeting.

Enter your meeting’s title, type, location, start date and duration.

If you are creating a meeting from a global module you will first need to select a project to which the meeting is attributed. After you have selected a project, the list of potential participants (project members) will appear for you to select who to invite. After the meeting you can note who attended the meeting.

Click the Create meeting button to save your changes. You can proceed to adding more meeting details.

Edit a meeting

If you want to change the details of a meeting, for example its time or location, open the meetings details view by clicking on pencil icon next to the Meeting details.

An edit screen will be displayed, where you can adjust the date, time, duration and location of the meeting.

Do not forget to save the changes by clicking the Save button. Cancel will bring you back to the details view.

Tip

If someone else edits or updates the current meeting page at the same time and saves their changes, you and all other users on the same page will be notified of this with a small banner at the top of the page. Click the Reload button to load the updated version of the page.

In order to edit the title of the meeting select the dropdown menu behind the three dots and select the Edit meeting title.

Create or edit the meeting agenda

After creating a meeting, you can set up a meeting agenda.

You do this by adding sections, agenda items or existing work packages by selecting the desired option under the green + Add button. You can then add notes to each agenda item.

Add an agenda section

Sections allow you to group agenda items into blocks for better organization.

To add a section, click on the + Add button at the bottom of the agenda items and select the Section option.

If, prior to creating your first section, your meeting already had existing agenda items, they will automatically be contained in a section called Unnamed section. You can rename this if you wish.

Note

If you use sections, all agenda items must have sections.

Sections will show the sum of all the duration of all containing items (or at least, those that have a duration specified).

You can then add agenda items to specific sections by either dragging and dropping items into each, or by clicking on the More button (⋯) and choosing your desired action.

This menu also lets you rename a section, move it or delete the entire section by selecting the respective option from the dropdown menu behind the More (⋯) icon on the right side.

Important

Deleting a section will delete all containing agenda items. If a section contains agenda items, you will asked for confirmation before deletion.

You can also re-arrange sections by dragging and dropping sections up and down. If a section is moved, the agenda items will move along with it.

Add an agenda item

If you select the Agenda item option, you can name that item, add notes, set the anticipated duration in minutes and select a user to be displayed next to the agenda item. This could for example be a meeting or a project member that is accountable for the item or someone who will present that particular topic.

By default, when creating an agenda item, this will be pre-filled with the name of the user adding the agenda item, but it can either be removed or replaced by one of the other meeting participants.

Tip

If you need to store the agenda outside of OpenProject, you can generate an optimized PDF using the print function (Ctrl/Cmd + P).

Link a work package to a meeting

If you select the Work package option, you can link a work package by entering either a work package ID, or starting to type in a keyword, which will open a list of possible options.

After you have finalized the agenda, you can always edit the agenda items, add notes, move an item up or down or delete it. Clicking on the three dots on the right edge of each agenda item will display a menu of available options, including editing, copying link to clipboard, moving the agenda item within the agenda or deleting it.

You may also re-order agenda items by clicking on the drag handle (the icon with six dots) on the left edge of each agenda item and dragging that item above or below.

The durations of each agenda item are automatically summed up. If that sum exceeds the planned duration entered in Meeting Details, the duration of those agenda times that exceed the planned duration will appear in red to warn you of the fact.

Add a work package to the agenda

There are two ways to add a work package to a meeting agenda.

• From the Meetings module: using the + Add button add a work package agenda item or
• From a particular work package: using the + Add to meeting button on the Meetings tab

You can add a work package to both upcoming or past meetings as long as the work package is marked open.

Tip

The upcoming meetings are displayed in chronological order, from the nearest meeting to the most distant. The past meetings are displayed in reverse chronological order, from the most recent meeting to the oldest.

Meeting participants

Add meeting participants

You will see the list of all the invited project members under Participants. You can add participants (Invitees and Attendees) to a meeting in edit mode. The process is the same whether you are creating a new meeting or editing an existing one.

You will see the list of all the project members and be able to tell, based on the check marks next to the name under the Invited column, who was invited. After the meeting, you can record who actually took part using the checkmarks under the Attended column.

To remove an invited project member from a meeting, simply uncheck both check marks.

Click on the Save button to confirm the changes.

Send email to all participants

You can send an email reminder to all the meeting participants. Select the dropdown by clicking on the three dots in the top right corner and select Send email to all participants. An email reminder with the meeting details (including a link to the meeting) is immediately sent to all invitees and attendees.

Meeting attachments

You can attachments in the meetings in the Attachments section in the right bottom corner. You can either user the +Attach files link to select files from your computer or drag and drop them.

Added attachments can be added to the Notes section of agenda packages by dragging and dropping them from the Attachments section.

Meeting history

You can track what changes were made to a meeting and by which user. Select the dropdown by clicking on the three dots in the top right corner and select Meeting history.

This will display meeting history details.

Download a meeting as an iCalendar event

You can download a meeting as an iCalendar event. Select the dropdown by clicking on the three dots in the top right corner and select the Download iCalendar event.

Read more about subscribing to a calendar.

Close a meeting

Clicking on the Close meeting after the meeting is completed with lock the current state and make render it read-only.

Re-open a meeting

Once a meeting has been closed, it can no longer be edited. Project members with the permission to edit and close meetings will, however, see a Re-open meeting option. Clicking on this re-opens a meeting and allows further editing.

Copy a meeting

You can copy an existing meeting. This is useful if you have recurring meetings. To copy a meeting, click on the three dots in the top right corner and select Copy.

A modal will open, which will allow you adjust the title, time, location and further details of the copied meeting. By default, the date for the copied meeting will be set to the next day. You also have an option of copying the agenda, attachments and the list of participants. You also have an option to email all participants after the meeting was copied.

If you copy a closed meeting, the new meeting status will automatically be set to open. Don’t forget to Save the copied meeting by clicking the Create button.

Delete a meeting

You can delete a meeting. To do so, click on the three dots in the top right corner, select Delete meeting and confirm your choice.