Scheduling Meetings and Inviting Participants

Table of Contents


Scheduling a Meeting

We suggest scheduling meetings via the web site. You can find all your meeting information, and schedule new ones, by clicking "Meetings" on the menu on the left.

About The Meeting Time

The start time of a Zoom meeting is semi arbitrary.
Meetings scheduled for a single date can be started at any time on that date, and the meeting invitation is good for 30 days past the date of meeting. 

If you are posting about the meeting on a public resource (for example, a department website), we recommend generating a unique ID.

Avoid using your Personal Meeting ID (PMI) to host public events.

To do so please follow these steps:

  1. Log In.
  2. Click 'Schedule a New Meeting'.
  3. Do not select 'Recurring meeting', even if your meeting is part of a series.
  4. Click 'Save'. The page will reload, and the ID should be listed to the right of "Meeting ID".

If your meeting is part of a series, then you'll need to schedule a new meeting for each session. You cannot change an existing meeting's ID.

If you decide to select a 'Recurring meeting', a recurring meeting will only expire 365 days after the last time it was used.

This means you have a great deal of flexibility to reschedule your meetings, or to have follow ups, without having to actually change anything in Zoom.

Suggested Settings

To maintain the integrity of your Zoom meeting or webinar, you may take advantage of several features offered in Zoom at UT
We recommend using the following settings when you schedule a meeting

Options below reduce the likelihood of unwelcome or disruptive participants joining your event.

SettingSuggestedNote
RegistrationChecked
  • You can configure your meeting so individuals can't attend unless they have registered.
  • Participants register for meetings through a custom URL that Zoom generates for you.
  • To register, participants must provide their first name, last name, and email address.
  • Participants won't be able to join unless their name and email address matches the information they initially provided when registering.
Meeting IDGenerate AutomaticallyGenerating your meeting ID automatically allows for each meeting you create to be unique, and only the people with that meeting information can join that meeting.
Meeting PasswordChecked

With this box checked the invited participants will need to do more steps to join your meeting.

When creating meeting passwords, keep in mind that some videoconferencing equipment can only enter numbers.
If some participants might connect from videoconferencing hardware instead of a computer or mobile device, set a numerical password to ensure that they can connect without issue.

Video"Off" for both Host and ParticipantYou can configure your meeting room so that every participant's video feed is disabled when first joining. 
AudioBoth

Enabling telephone for audio provides a way for participants who lack internet, or have poor internet, to dial in with a regular phone.

Providing dial in with toll-free numbers requires the meeting be hosted by a Licensed User.

Meeting OptionsCheck "Enable join before host"

This will allow your participants to join the meeting before you do. Otherwise, they will get a message that the meeting has not begun.



Mute participants upon entryYou can configure your meeting room so that every participant's audio feed is disabled when first joining. 

Enable waiting roomIf you enable the waiting room, participants won't be able to join the meeting until you admit them individually. This option works best for meetings with fewer numbers of attendees. 

Only authenticated users can join: Sign in to ZoomWhile this setting does not discriminate between institutions providing Zoom accounts (that is, it cannot restrict the meeting to accounts provided by UT),
this is an additional precaution you can take to restrict access to your meeting.

Record the meeting Automatically

For Basic Users the only available "Record" option is "on the local computer". For Licensed Users the "Record" option will also allow you to record your meeting "in the cloud".


For more information regarding meeting scheduling and avoiding disruption, please reference the following article on Working with Zoom.

Inviting Participants

After saving the newly scheduled meeting the window will automatically refresh and then present you with your "Meeting ID" and the "Join URL". 

At minimum, to invite people to your Zoom meeting simply copy the Join URL and share it.

To craft a better invitation, click the "Copy the Invitation" button to the side of the Join URL. Copy the text in the window that appears and send that in an email to your invitees.


Re-Use Of Meeting IDs

A standard meeting ID will expire 30 days after the meeting is scheduled or started. You can re-start a Zoom meeting with the same meeting ID within that 30 days.  
A recurring meeting ID will expire 365 days after the meeting is first started. You can re-use the meeting ID for future occurrences within that 365 days.  

If one of your previous meetings was compromised, a similar disruption could happen again if you use the same ID. Consider using unique IDs instead. Although they are less convenient than using a recurring meeting ID or your personal Zoom room, unique IDs make it harder for previous disruptive participants to join future meetings. 


Help On Zooms Web Site

You can find more detailed instructions, including how to use the Zoom app to schedule and invite, on Zoom's comprehensive help pages.