Setting up a Sametime Meeting

Log into Sametime via http://sametime.rhsmith.umd.edu using your iNotes/Webmail/Sametime username and password (this will be the same as your Smith username and password if you have synchronized them with PSync).

Once you’ve logged in you can click the links on the top right to Attend a Meeting or Schedule a Meeting. In this instance, we’ll use Schedule a Meeting,

The New Meeting page displays, so start filling out the Essentials tab. Give the meeting a descriptive name so people searching for the meeting can find it. Also if you choose to hide the meeting then attendants will need to know the exact meeting name (or have a direct link to the meeting).

If this is a meeting starting now, you can click the Start Now checkbox; otherwise select the Starting date, Time and Duration to have the meeting automatically start at the selected time.

Scroll down under the start time to set the Audio and video services and choose the option you need. For audio or video you’ll need to have microphone for the audio and some form of web camera or similar attached to your computer to broadcast audio and video. To receive audio you’ll just need speakers and video will be handled by your web browser.

At the bottom of the Essentials tab is the Meeting password section. A password is required for all meetings that will need to be typed by the participants to enter the meeting room.

On the People tab you can set the Chair of the meeting and make the meeting available to all people (who will still need the password to join the meeting) or restrict it to people from the RHS Address book. Note that if you select to restrict the meeting, those participants will need to log into the Sametime server on the homepage to identify themselves, and will still have to provide the meeting room password.

The checkbox under Permissions is where you set the option to allow people other than the Chair to present in the meeting by sharing their screen etc.

On the Slides tab you can add files that you want to share in the meeting. Many different file types are supported. Click on the list to see them all. If you need to share a file that isn’t supported you can install the IBM Lotus Sametime Print Capture utility to ‘print’ the unsupported file to a format that will display in the Sametime meeting.

On the Options tab you can set to allow Group chat where the attendees can use the mini chat room built into the meeting to message each other. If you are doing a presentation as opposed to interactive style meeting you may want to uncheck this to keep the focus on your presentation. You can also record the meeting as indicated. Finally by clicking the Hide the meeting option this will prevent the meeting from being displayed in all the meeting views. Participants will need the URL to the meeting room or the exact name to search for it.

Click the Save button at the bottom of the page to save the meeting and to see a summary page of the options you chose. If the meeting was set to Start Now then the Sametime server will start up the meeting and the summary page will refresh and display the Attend the Meeting button after a few seconds.

You will also receive an email containing information on the meeting. You can forward the email to the participants as it will have the password and direct link that people can click on to go directly to the meeting.