How to Use the Meeting Space

Meeting Space: Your All-in-One Meeting Environment

Think of the Meeting Environment as your complete meeting workspace. Everything you need to plan, run, and follow up on a meeting lives in one place—no more juggling different documents or forgetting what was decided.

What you can do here:

• Set up meeting details (when, where, who)
• Create your agenda
• Link document(s) referenced in your agenda
• Take notes during the meeting
• Record decisions and action items
• Send a summary to everyone afterward

Section 1: Meeting Basics

This section contains the essential information about your meeting.

Group Information (Left Side)

You'll see quick reference information about your group:

• Purpose: Why does this group exist?
• What it decides, delivers, and recommends: What this group is responsible for
• Key roles: Who is the Sponsor (The senior staff person accountable for stewarding the Group's success) and Convener (The person (or people) who plan the Group's work)

Setting Up Your Meeting (GL only)

Step 1: Name your meeting

Give your meeting a clear name based on what you'll be discussing. This name will show up on reports, so make it descriptive.

✅ Good: "Q1 Budget Review"

✅ Good: "Product Launch Planning"

❌ Not helpful: "Team Meeting #5"

Step 2: Set date, time, and location

Pick when and where you're meeting. If it's a video call, add the video link.

Step 3: Add invitees

Everyone in your group shows up automatically. Add anyone else who needs to attend.

Section 2: Why You're Meeting & What You'll Discuss

Meeting Purpose (GL can edit)

Write down why you're meeting. This should be one or two sentences that explain what you hope to accomplish.

Building Your Agenda (GL only)

Step 1: Add agenda topics

For each topic you'll discuss:

• Write what the topic is
• Choose who's leading that discussion
• Set how much time you'll spend on it

Step 2: Rearrange as needed

You can drag topics to reorder them.

Step 3: Watch your time

Look at the red "Remaining minutes" counter in the upper right corner. This helps you avoid planning a meeting that runs too long.

Example: If your meeting is 60 minutes and your agenda topics add up to 75 minutes, you'll need to cut something or make the meeting longer.

Link Documents (GL only)

If people need to review documents for this meeting, link them here. Everyone will be able to find them easily.

Section 3: What You Decided & Who Will Do What

This is where you record the actual results of your meeting. These are the most important parts because they turn your discussion into action.

Decisions

What is a decision? A decision is a clear commitment to action. See: Understanding Decisions

How to record a decision (GL only):

1. Write what was decided - Keep the decision itself short and clear

Example: "We will launch the new website on March 15"

Example: "We decided not to expand into Chicago this year"

2. Adding Details - For decisions that are more complex or involved, you should add all the details that you know for now. And add more at later dates as they become clearer. A decision that says "We're applying to the Ford Foundation" leaves too many questions unanswered. A detailed decision says "We're applying to the Ford Foundation for youth voter engagement during the 2026 mid-terms. Maria is lead on the proposal submission due March 15, 2025."

Details do three critical things: (1) They prevent misunderstandings today—everyone leaves the meeting crystal clear. (2) They help everyone remember exactly what you decided when you review this 3 months from now. (3) They give you an initial baseline of the decision details that can be enriched over time as everyone learns more.

3. Say who made the decision

Was it the whole team/table? Or was it a specific person(s)?

4. Select how the decision was made

If one person decided:

• Positional decision - They decided on their own because it's their job
• Positional decision with advice - They asked for input from people impacted first, then decided

If the team/table decided together:

• Consent - Everyone agrees to move forward (no strong objections)
• Consensus - Everyone actively supports it
• Majority - More than half the group voted for it

5. Link to your organization's goals (if applicable) - Which organizational priorities or strategies does this decision support?

Why this matters: Decisions get included in reports, so everyone can see how your group is making progress.

Voting on Proposals (Everyone can do this):

Group Voting is powerful when you need genuine agreement on complex strategic decisions. It slows things down intentionally—creating space for thorough understanding and collaborative shaping of the proposal.

Commitments

What is a commitment? A commitment is when someone promises to do something after the meeting - these commitments are made by an individual to the team or table.

How to use commitments (GL only for adding, everyone can see):

• During the meeting: Write down who promised to do what and by when.

Examples: "Sarah will send the budget draft by Friday" or "Marcus will schedule follow-up calls with each vendor by end of month"

• End every meeting by reviewing commitments out loud, so everyone knows what they're responsible for

• Start your next meeting by reviewing open commitments to create accountability

Why this matters: Commitments show up on each person's personal dashboard (My Dashboard), so they won't forget what they promised to do.

Section 4: Meeting Notes

You don't need separate Word or Google docs anymore! Your notes live right here with your agenda.

Taking Notes (Anyone can do this)

The basics: Use the formatting tools at the top (headers, bold, bullet points, etc.). Notes are searchable later by keywords.

Step 1: Assign a note taker

Use the dropdown menu in the upper right to select who's taking notes. You can change this during the meeting if someone else takes over.

Step 2: Set up your notes (optional shortcuts) (GL only)

Click "Insert Content into Notes" to automatically add:

• Everyone's names (helpful for capturing attendance)
• Your agenda topics as headers (so your notes follow the agenda flow)

Capture Board (Brainstorming Tool)

Use this when you want everyone to contribute ideas at the same time.

When to use it: When an agenda topic needs everyone to write down their answers or ideas, and you want to see all responses together in real-time.

See: Capture Board for information on this feature.

Sending Meeting Results (GL only)

After your meeting ends:

Step 1: Review everything

Make sure all Decisions, Commitments, and Notes are recorded correctly.

Step 2: Click "Email Results Now"

This sends a clean, organized email to everyone who attended with:

• Decisions that were made
• Commitments Completed (who did what)
• Open Commitments (who will do what)
• Documents that were discussed
• Full meeting notes

Why this matters: Everyone gets a clear record of what happened and what they need to do next. No one can say "I didn't know about that!"

Quick Tips for Success

✨ Name your meetings clearly - It makes it very clear what your team/table is meeting about on reports and in your dashboards

✨ Always state the meeting purpose - If you can't, reconsider if you need the meeting

✨ Watch the time counter - Don't over-schedule your agenda

✨ End with commitment and decision review - Make sure everyone knows what they're doing next

✨ Send results immediately - This will help meeting attendees review and recall the most important parts of the meeting

✨ Review commitments at the next meeting - This creates accountability and momentum

Updated on: 05/01/2026