Help

Questions? Email support@blueskymeeting.com

These short guides show you how to do the most common tasks in BlueSky. Click a topic to jump to it.

Getting started

How to use features

Getting started

Creating a new account

To start, click any Start My Free Trial button on our website. Every new account comes with a free 30-day trial. During the trial you can create meeting groups and meetings, and run your meetings.

When you are ready to keep your account, click Activate in your account and enter your payment details.

Creating a new meeting group

Meeting groups are the heart of BlueSky. A meeting group is a set of people who meet together. Every meeting you hold belongs to a group.

A school might have one group for the school board and one for each department. A non-profit might have one for its board and one for each committee. Make one meeting group for each set of people who meet.

There are two types of meeting groups:

  • Simple meeting group. Good for staff meetings and small teams. You can build an agenda, take notes and add action items. There is no voting record, and agendas and minutes cannot be made public.
  • Advanced meeting group. Good for board meetings. It has everything in a simple group, plus agenda and minutes approval, public agendas and minutes, recorded votes, and more detailed permissions.

You must be signed in as an administrator to create a group. Then:

  1. Click Meeting Groups in the top left corner.
  2. Click New Meeting Group.
  3. Choose the type of group. You may need to add more meeting groups to your plan first.
  4. Confirm the billing change.
  5. Give the group a name and some basic details. You can change these later.
  6. Add users, or invite new ones. You can add more later.
  7. You are now ready to create your first meeting.

Adding members to a meeting group

A meeting needs people. To add members to a group:

  1. Click the tab for your meeting group at the top of the screen.
  2. In the Team box on the right, click Edit.
  3. Click Invite to invite a new person to your account. Or pick an existing user from the list and click Add User.
  4. Set the right permissions for each member. See Meeting group permissions below.

Meeting group permissions

Each member of a meeting group can have different permissions. You can manage them on the Users page, or by editing the people in the meeting group.

Advanced meeting groups

  • Votes: the member is on the voting list for action items during the meeting. They can also make or second a motion. Their screen does not look any different.
  • Organizes: the member can add meetings, change permissions, add members, edit agendas and skip approval steps. You can give this to anyone, even someone who does not attend or vote.
  • Records: the member can take minutes and record votes. You can give this to anyone, even someone who cannot vote.
  • Approves Agendas: the member can approve agendas. If your agendas are public, an agenda becomes approved and public once every member with this permission approves it. If your agendas are not public, you can use it to see who has read the agenda and given feedback.
  • Hide from Agenda: the member is not listed as an attendee on the agenda. Use it for someone who needs access but does not attend, such as a secretary who enters the data.
  • Read Only: the member can see the agenda and minutes of every meeting in the group, at any stage, but cannot change anything.

Simple meeting groups

Simple groups have three permissions: Organizes, Records and Hide from Agenda. They work the same way as above.

Admin users

Admin users have every permission in every meeting group. You can add them to a group, but their main job is to manage the whole account.

Getting support and help

Email us at support@blueskymeeting.com. To help us answer faster, please tell us:

  • your BlueSky address (for example, yourname.blueskymeeting.com),
  • what you were trying to do, and
  • what happened instead. A screenshot helps a lot.

Have an idea that would make BlueSky better? Send it to the same address. We read your ideas when we plan what to build next.

How to use features

Making your meeting group visible to the public

You can make an advanced meeting group public. Then anyone can open your BlueSky address (yourname.blueskymeeting.com) and see your scheduled meetings, approved agendas and approved minutes without logging in. You can also show them on your own website.

To turn it on:

  1. Open the Settings tab of your meeting group and click Edit.
  2. Check the box Visible to the Public.

This works in advanced meeting groups only, not in simple ones. Public pages are read only. Visitors cannot change your meetings unless they log in and have the right permissions.

Showing BlueSky on your website

You can show your meeting information on your own website, so visitors do not have to leave your site. Your meeting group must be an advanced group, and it must be visible to the public.

There are two ways to do it.

1. A plugin for your website system. There is a BlueSky module for Drupal (versions 7 and 8). You can find it on the Drupal project page.

2. A piece of code (a widget) that you paste into a page. This works on almost any website:

  1. Open the Settings tab of your meeting group.
  2. Click Embed Widget in the settings box.
  3. Choose your options, such as what to show and the widget title.
  4. Click Copy HTML Markup to Clipboard.
  5. Paste the code into your website’s code (HTML) editor. It will not work if you paste it as normal text.

Tips:

  • You may need to change the height and width so the widget fits your design.
  • Widgets resize to fit phones and tablets.
  • You can change the widget options at any time.
  • We can help with the widget itself. For help placing it on your site, ask the people who run your website.

Meeting videos

You can link a video to a meeting, so people can watch it right in BlueSky.

  1. Open the meeting and click Edit to change the meeting details.
  2. Paste the link to your video. Only YouTube links work.
  3. Save. A video icon now shows in the meeting details. People click it to watch.

A video belongs to the whole meeting. You cannot add a video to a single agenda item.

Cancelling and deleting meetings

Cancel a meeting when it was planned but will not happen. The meeting and its agenda stay in your meeting group, marked as cancelled for everyone who views it. You can cancel a meeting any time before its minutes are finalized. You cannot undo a cancel.

  1. Click the meeting in your meeting group’s list of meetings.
  2. Click Cancel Meeting in the meeting details.
  3. Choose whether to tell the participants.

Delete a meeting when it was made by mistake, or when you want to start the agenda over. A deleted meeting disappears completely, and participants are not told. You can delete a meeting at any stage. You cannot undo a delete.

  1. Click the meeting in your meeting group’s list of meetings.
  2. Click Delete Meeting in the meeting details.

Notifications

BlueSky tells you about updates in two ways: by email, and with the bell icon in the top right corner of the page. What you get depends on your role and permissions in each meeting group.

In BlueSky, click the circle next to a notification to mark it as read or unread. An open circle means read. A filled circle means unread. When you have unread notifications, the bell shows a badge.

There are four types of notifications:

  • Meeting: for example, when a meeting is created or moves to its next stage. You can turn some of these on or off for each meeting.
  • Task: something you need to do, such as approve an agenda.
  • System: outages or changes that affect you.
  • Blog post: news and tips we think you will find useful.

Searching in BlueSky

Type your words into the search bar at the top of the page. The results page shows your words highlighted, so you can see them in context.

On the results page you can narrow the results to one meeting group. You can also choose to show only agenda items or only minutes.

Search only includes finalized meetings. Meetings that are not finalized yet will not show up.

Using custom avatars

You can add a profile picture (avatar). It helps others in your group put a face to each name.

  1. Click your account menu in the top right corner.
  2. Click Account Settings.
  3. Upload, change or remove your picture.

Questions? Email support@blueskymeeting.com