I'm not sure how committee meetings are organized elsewhere, but around here, my PI would give me a list of dates that worked for him, and I would email the rest of my committee members the list of dates, and then spend the next several weeks emailing back and forth to try and finagle down one single timepoint that worked. Then, one day, my PI discovered Doodle Calender.
That is a screenshot from my Doodle Calender. The blurred-out area is the names of my committee members, which they each entered. Across the top are dates which my PI had told me he would be available, so I selected them as options for the meeting. I then emailed out the link for the calender to my committee members, and they were able to sign in to the calender and mark off what times they could make the meeting. If the times they are available change, they can go in at a later date and change it on their own. When I need to pinpoint a time for my meeting, all I need to do is look at what column has the most green "OK" marks, and I have my date and time selected for me. And I don't have 40 e-mails through which to search.Brilliant.
My advisor is big on doodle. I tried using it to schedule my last committee meeting and everyone basically still just emailed me when they were available. Alas, maybe doodle is just ahead of its time.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great tool. I work on a similar principle without the nifty graphics:
ReplyDeleteGrAdvisor sends a list of available dates/times and I pass this on to committee members requesting that they let me know which ones WON'T work for them. That usually narrows it down to one or two dates/times that work for everyone. Usually settled in the first round of email.
But I like the Doodle Calendar. Way spiffier.
I had no idea there was some way to do this! I'm going to give this a try for my spring committee meeting!
ReplyDeleteTotally NOT the same application but, I do wonder if I could get my family internet-savvy enough to use Doodle for planning holiday gatherings? Hmmm... Nifty!
ReplyDeleteThe anal-retentive in me would like to point out that calendar is spelled with two "a"s. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE Doodle. It's worth pointing out that people who participate in a Doodle survey (the people who enter their dates/times) DON'T have to sign up for an account with the site - something that has made my friends really keen on using it whenever I've created a poll. :)
Way to go, anyway - I'd never thought of using this for scheduling work meetings. We are chained to Outlook at work and so we end up using it for most things like this - but during my PhD this would have come in really handy.
fantastic!! i have to email my committee about a meeting later this semester...i can't wait to try doodle :)
ReplyDeleteMary -- sorry it didn't work for you. None of my other committee members had ever heard of it, but they were all able to figure it out!
ReplyDeleteAA -- Definitely spiffy. :) Highly recommended.
Amanda and Quiet & Small -- You should give it a try. It is seriously so much easier this way. Especially when you are trying to organize 5 faculty members with excruciatingly busy schedules.
ka1t -- Family meetings would definitely work! I'm thinking of using it try and schedule my Chrismukkah party -- send it to my closest friends and see which date works the best, and pick that weekend for our annual party.
Kelly -- See this post http://ethidiumbromide.blogspot.com/2008/09/migraine-misery.html and note the section on my migraine medication and its effect on my spelling.
that is awesome!! will be using for my thesis defense scheduling. wooot! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteTag! You've been hit with the "5 things meme"!
ReplyDeleteI can't get the damn hyperlinks to work in comments so here's where to go to find it:
http://ambivalentacademic.blogspot.com/2008/11/5-things-meme.html
Sorry so ghetto
I love Doodle. A friend introduced me to it when we were trying to schedule a luncheon. It was fantastic! I totally plan on using it for committee meetings.
ReplyDeleteA lot of people at my school like Google Calendar to schedule meetings. Professors give students their name and password and essentially say: you schedule it and it will tell me when and where to show up.
I like Doodle better though. I feel less like a secretary/pain in the ass when I use it. Good Suggestion!
~Erica
that is so cool and would have been so useful for scheduling committee meetings/my defense if I had known about it earlier (although I'm not sure that my PhD advisor would have been able to figure out how to use it, he's a little technophobic)
ReplyDeleteAmazing! I had considered hosting an iCal page from my computer... this is much easier!
ReplyDelete