Communicating with Telephone Conference Calls

IBM offers an optional telephone Meeting Room service that integrates telephone capabilities into a meeting. If this service is available to you and you choose this option when you create a scheduled meeting, a telephone conference call is automatically associated with the meeting. This allows all meeting participants to use the telephone conference call to communicate and for meeting chairs to manage the teleconference.

Note Even users who have not joined the meeting can participate in the telephone conference call if they have the conference call number and passcode.

You should be familiar with the following information before you add a telephone conference call to your scheduled meeting:

• If you want to use the telephone conference call service for a meeting and this service is available to you, you will provide any needed information related to the call when you create the meeting. See Essentials: What You Must Do for more information.
• A telephone number for the call is automatically assigned when you create the meeting.
• The call is actually created using a third-party service provider. The third party provider will supply you with a Client ID, password, and passcode for teleconferences.
• To attend a call, click "Join the Call" on the meeting Welcome page and then select the telephone number you want to be called at; the telephone service will call you. During an active meeting, you can see information about the call by clicking Meeting Information in the toolbar, or by viewing the meeting details for the meeting.

Things to be aware of

Review the following information regarding using the telephone conference call service with meeting.

Using the User PIN security feature

Some telephone service providers off a security feature which requires invited participants to enter a User PIN number before joining the telephone conference call. If your service providers offers it, you can use this feature when you create a meeting with the telephone conference service option that restricts the meeting to specific participants. When you save the meeting you created, IBM^® Lotus^® Sametime^® automatically requests a User PIN from the telephone conference service for each participant. During a meeting, click Meeting Information in the toolbar to see this number.

Using the telephone conference call service with repeated Meetings

Note the following characteristics of repeated meetings that use a telephone conference call service.

• When a repeating meeting is scheduled with the telephone conference call service, the same telephone number, passcode, and other telephone conference call-related information apply to all instances of the repeated meeting.
• If a meeting using the telephone conference call service is scheduled for a single occurrence, you cannot convert it into a repeated meeting.

Using the telephone conference call services with recorded meetings

A meeting that is marked for recording for later playback will not include the telephone audio portion of the telephone conference call in the Recorded data.

Scheduling a meeting that includes a telephone conference call

See Creating a Scheduled Meeting for information about creating a meeting using the telephone conference call option.

Showing connection and other status

Both the chair and participants can view the following telephone conference call connection and related icons that display to the right of names in the participants list.

Joining a teleconference

The following choices describe how to join a telephone conference call.

Joining a telephone conference call using the Join the Call button

Once a telephone conference call is set up, either the chair or any participant can request a call from the telephone conference service.

1. Click the Join the Call button at the top of the participants list or on the meeting Welcome page, is the Join the Call button appears there.
2. Choose a telephone number. The Join the Call dialog box lists a history of telephone numbers at which you have previously been called. Each entry on the list includes a phone number, and a description, such as home, or office.
3. To add a new telephone number, under "Numbers" choose New, select or type a label that will identify the phone number, such as "Office" or "Mobile." Then type the phone number. Click OK.
4. Click Call to initiate a call from the telephone conference service.

Dialing others to join the conference call

The chair's tool bar has a Dial out option that allows the chair to invite participants to a telephone conference meeting by calling them. This is particularly useful for including participants who do not have a Lotus Sametime Connect client.

1. Click the Audio Controls down arrow and then click Dial out.
2. Choose a telephone number. The Dial Another User dialog box lists a history of telephone numbers that you have previously called. Each entry on the list includes a phone number, and a description, such as "J. Smith's office."
3. To add a new telephone number, under "Numbers" choose New, select or type a label that will identify the phone number, such as "Office" or "Mobile." Then type the phone number. Click OK.
4. Click Dial to initiate a call from the telephone conference service to the selected number.

Inviting Others to Join the Meeting

Follow these steps to invite others to join the meeting. Once people have joined, they can then join the telephone conference call.

1. Click the Invite icon at the top of the participants list.
2. In the Topic field, enter the purpose of the invitation, such as, "Talk about project."
3. In the User name filed, type all or part of the name of the person you want to invite. The names of matches appear. Click the name of the person you want to invite and then click Add.
4. If you do not find the name you want, type the name of the person or group you want to invite. Select it and click Add. Then click Add.
5. Repeat Steps 3 - 4 to select additional conference call participants.
6. Click Send.

Responding to an invitation to join a telephone conference call

Select one of the following options if you receive an invitation to join a telephone conference call.

• Chat with Inviter - To send a private text chat message to the person who is inviting you. No other conference call participant sees this message.
• Join - To join the telephone conference call.
• Decline - to close the invitation without joining the call.

Dialing into a telephone conference call

Participants who do not have the Meeting Room client can dial directly into a teleconference if they have the phone number and the teleconference passcode.

Moderating a telephone conference call

The meeting chair can click the Audio Controls icon at the top of the participants list to use the following tools to manage all participants in a telephone conference call:

The chair also see controls to control his or her own participation in the call:

In addition, the meeting chair can click the telephone connection icon beside a name in the Participant's List to access audio controls to manage the selected individual's participation in a telephone conference call.

Participating in a telephone conference call

Participants in the teleconference can click the Audio Controls icon at the top of the participants list to use the following tools:

See also:

• Creating a Scheduled Meeting
• Editing a Scheduled Meeting