Using the meeting tools

MeetingBooster includes different meeting tools that the note taker can use:

A vote tool for displaying attendee votes on a particular issue

Two pros/cons tools for displaying the pros and cons of one or more issues

A rating tool for rating particular items

The votes, ratings or input on pros and cons of the attendees are registered by the note taker, not by the attendees themselves. The results are immediately visible to all attendees, however.

When selecting a topic where the meeting tool is to be used, remember that if you are note taker but not host, the topic pane of the attendees will not necessarily show the topic the tool applies to when you switch topics. For more information, see "Navigating from topic to topic" in Hosting a meeting".

Using the Vote tool

Select the topic to which the vote applies.

Click Tools above the topic pane or above the note card .

Click Start under Vote in the dialog that opens. The following dialog opens.

Enter a title for the vote in the Title field.

Select the desired answer options (Yes/No, Agree/Disagree or For/Against) on the Metrics drop-down, or select Custom to define your own labels.

(Optional) Select success criteria for the vote: majority (more than half of the votes) or supermajority (two thirds or more of the votes).

(Optional) Select other settings for the vote:

Select Voting anonymous in minutes if attendee answers should be displayed anonymously in the meeting workspace and in the meeting minutes.

Select Include neutral votes in total if neutral votes (in other words, blank votes) should be counted in the total number of votes.

This option achieves two things: It affects the voting percentages shown when the vote is complete, and it affects how many votes it takes to fulfil the success criteria if you selected majority or supermajority. To illustrate how this works, imagine that you put an issue to the vote in a meeting with 10 attendees. Only 8 attendees participate in the vote; 6 vote Yes, 2 vote No. If you do not select the check box, the total number of votes is 8 (as the two neutral votes do not count); if you do select it, the total number of votes is 10.

In the first case, the percentage of Yes and No votes is shown as 75% (6/8) and 25% (2/8), respectively. Reaching majority requires 5 votes (more than half of 8) while reaching supermajority requires 6 votes (two thirds of 8 is 5.33, but the figure is rounded up to the nearest whole number).

In the second case, the percentage of Yes and No votes is 60% (6/10) and 20% (2/10), respectively. Reaching majority requires 6 votes (more than half of 10) while reaching supermajority requires 7 votes (two thirds of 10 is 6.67; again, the figure is rounded up).

Select Robert's Rules if you need to indicate which users motioned and seconded the vote according to Robert's Rules of Order, a manual on parliamentary procedure commonly used in the United States. Select the relevant users on the drop-downs that appear.

Select the attendees who are to participate on the list. If all attendees are to participate, select the Select All check box.

Click Preview. A preview of the vote is displayed.

Do one of the following:

Click Start to start registering attendee votes.

Click Back to go back and change voting settings.

Click Cancel to abort the vote.

When the voting has been started, register attendee votes in the check boxes provided.

If votes are registered anonymously, attendees will be able to see if a vote has been registered for each attendee, but they will not be able to see what that attendee voted. If votes are not registered anonymously, they will be able to see what all attendees voted on the issue.

Click Done.

If you have left the voting check boxes empty for one or more attendees, you will be asked to confirm that you want to end the vote.

In the dialog displaying the vote results, do one of the following:

Click Edit to edit the vote results (in effect restarting the vote).

Click Done to finish the vote and display the results on the note card.

Click Cancel to abort the vote. The results will not be saved.

If you selected success criteria when setting up the vote, and the criteria were fulfilled, this is shown in the dialog, on the note card and in the meeting minutes.

If you indicated who motioned and seconded the vote using the Robert's Rules option, this information is also shown on the note card and in the meeting minutes.

Using the Pros/Cons tool

Select the topic to which the pros/cons apply.

Click Tools above the topic pane or above the note card .

Click Start under Single Pro/Con or Multi Pro/Con in the dialog that opens.

If you chose Single, the following dialog appears:

Enter a title for the issue.

Click in the Pros or Cons column to add a pro or a con for the issue. You can add as many pros and cons as you like.

Click Edit next to a pro or a con to edit it, or click Delete to delete it.

If you chose Multiple, the following dialog appears:

Enter an overall title for the issues.

Click in the Sub-topics column and enter the title of a sub-topic.

Click in the Pros or Cons column to add a pro or a con for the sub-topic. You can add as many pros and cons as you like.

Click to add more sub-topics if desired, and enter pros and cons for them as described above.

The pros and cons are displayed on the note card.

Using the Rating tool

Select the topic to which the ratings apply.

Click Tools above the topic pane or above the note card .

Click Start under Rating in the dialog that opens. The following dialog opens.

Enter a title for the rating.

Select whether the rating should be performed using sliders or radio buttons on the drop-down.

Click in the Topics column and enter the title of a topic to be rated.

Select a rating for the topic from 1 (Very bad) to 5 (Excellent).

Click to add more topics if desired, and enter ratings for them as described above.

Click OK.

The average rating of all topics included in the rating is displayed on the note card.

Editing and deleting meeting tool results

From the note card, you can edit or delete the results of using the meeting tools as follows:

Click the name of a result to edit it. A dialog opens where you can edit the results as described above for each meeting tool.

When you close the dialog, the results shown on the note card are updated.

Delete a result by clicking the Delete icon next to it.