IMPORTANT: This is for a Legacy Product. Please be sure you have a Legacy Product before reading this item.
All you do from meeting to meeting is create & load a new agenda (on the Setup Tab), then start & run the meeting (from the Meeting Tab).
This section of the manual describes how to use Meeting Tab functions to run a meeting using RollCall Pro.
Loading an Agenda
In the previous section of this manual, we illustrated how to create an agenda to use in a meeting. When it’s actually time to use an agenda in a meeting, you must first load it. On the Setup Tab click on the Agenda Tab:
Click the green Load button to display a dialog box that allows you to select the previously saved RollCall Pro agenda file you plan to use in your meeting.
If you do not load an agenda to use in your meeting, that’s OK. RollCall Pro will let you run a meeting without a pre-loaded agenda and will simply bring up items named “Item 1”, “Item 2”, etc. using the default voting criteria you established in your Configuration file. You can either edit these default item labels on the fly during the meeting as items come up for deliberation or keep track separately of which item number corresponds to a particular agenda item (Item 3 = Approve Minutes, for example).
Once you have loaded your meeting’s agenda, click on the Meeting Tab.
Opening a Public Display
The Public Display feature in RollCall Pro allows you to display a slightly different view of the action to the audience than what you see on your screen. In particular, the use of a Public Display window insulates the public from seeing your mouse movements, button selections, editing, etc.
To utilize this feature, you will need to extend your display onto a projector or screen rather than duplicate it. If you don’t know how to do this, call your IT Department for help, but it’s very easy to do.
Once you have extended your Desktop, then you can open a window for public consumption by using the “Open” option on the Public Display menu:
This will open a Public Display window over your screen. Click on the title bar of this window, drag it onto your extended screen, and then maximize it:
At various stages of the meeting, the Public Display will display agenda item wording, for example, as well as member’s motions, seconds, and voting positions. You should become familiar with the differences between your display and the one the public sees, but you always have everything you need to run the meeting right in front of you.
Starting a Meeting
The Meeting Tab houses all the controls you need to guide a group through a meeting:
We have used color cues to suggest your next logical step in using the system. Since green typically means go, click the green Start Meeting button to start your meeting. This action opens the meeting’s results file and time-stamps the beginning of the meeting within that file.
If you have no agenda loaded when you start a meeting, RollCall Pro will prompt you for an agenda file to load. However, you can run a successful meeting without a pre-loaded agenda since RollCall Pro gives you the ability to edit item names and adjust voting criteria on the fly.
Editing Screen Layout and Font Size
In the screenshot above, the font size and overall layout of the members’ names can be modified on the Edit menu:
To change the layout of the members’ names on the screen, choose “Change Members Layouts”:
You can make adjustments to your Meeting Manager screen independently of the layout used on the Public Window. Clicking Ok re-draws the member names on your screen:
You can also change member name font size on the same Edit menu, so you could easily make them larger, if desired:
This font size control can be applied to each display – Meeting Manager and Public Screen – independently. However, the changes you make to the Public Screen font sizes only apply if you have checked User-adjustable name font sizes on the Display Tab.
Once you have the display(s) looking the way you want, click the red Save button to save your configuration changes.
Member Login
Any time after you’ve launched the Meeting Manager – even before you’ve started a meeting – members can log in and connect to you. They login by:
- Connecting to the same network you’re on
- Entering your computer’s IP address (displayed in the bottom left-hand corner of your screen)
- Entering the Username and Password credentials you’ve established in your Roster table
To members using the RollCall Pro Member App, the login process looks like this:
And after clicking the LOG IN button, this member is ready to go:
Once a member gets connected, you see their connection status on your screen in that member’s layout row on the far right:
If a member’s login info needs to be edited or adjusted, the yellow Settings button on the LOG IN screen allows you to edit any entry:
Roll Call
Once a meeting has been started, the Roll Call cycle can begin, and to do that you should click the green Roll Call button:
When you start the roll call process, members’ screens display a blue Present button:
When they click their Present button, they are shown as present on your screen by the blue P button at the beginning of each member’s layout row:
The blue P button is active on your screen, meaning that you can also click it to make a member absent, if you need to for any reason. At the end of a member’s row, a status indicator also shows that this member is present. In other stages of a meeting, this status indicator may change to say “Voting” or “Vote Locked”, but the blue P button always reflects a member’s present or absent status.
When every voting member who is in attendance has established their presence, click the green Tally button to “count noses” and establish for the record how many members are present and absent. The roll call tally – as well as other vote tallies – is shown at the bottom of your screen under the member name grid and a green Quorum Present message displays to the left of the tally:
At the same time, if you are recording results, the present/absent status of each voting member and the roll call tally is written into the meeting’s Results document.
Discussing an Agenda Item
Once you finish the roll call stage, you enter the main Agenda Item Cycle as shown at the top of your screen:
You will be using this cycle over and over in your meeting as you move from discussion, to voting, to vote tallying stages on each agenda item. Note that there’s a green Next button that you can click to move from stage to stage.
While you will typically discuss each item on the agenda in order, there are times when you may take up an item out of order. To navigate to a different item in the agenda, use the Agenda Item Selector dropdown:
When you are ready to take the group into the discussion stage for an agenda item, click the green Discuss button (or the green Next button):
The only thing that happens on your screen is that you see a message in the lower right-hand corner of your screen that indicates where we are:
The Public Display and the Member Apps change signficantly, however:
The Item Name is displayed under the group logo to indicate what the group is currently discussing. At the bottom of the Member App, the Motion and RTS (Request to Speak) buttons display.
RollCall Pro displays the right buttons at the right time on members’ app displays. You’ve heard of WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get), haven’t you? We refer to our Member App interface as WYSIWYN (What You See Is What You Need).
On the Meeting Manager screen, a green Maximize Summary button is displayed to the right of the Item Summary field:
Clicking this button displays the Item Summary in full screen mode on the Public Display:
Think of this presentation as a title slide. If your item summaries are long, you can use the green Maximize button to display information that’s helpful to your audience. You can bring the system back to its default Public Screen presentation by clicking the red Minimize Summary button:
You can also cause the system to display these summaries automatically as soon as you bring them up for discussion. (Refer back to the Discussion Display options under Configuring the System/Voting/Display to see how this is done.)
While an item is being discussed, you’re able to take notes in the Item Notes field to the right of the Item Summary field:
These notes will be written into the meeting results file once this agenda item has been processed.
Editing an Agenda Item
You can edit an agenda item any time except when it’s being voted on. To change an agenda item, click the yellow Edit button:
This action will display the Agenda Item Editor dialog, which will allow you to make changes to the item’s name, its summary text, and/or its voting criteria. Once this dialog is closed, any change you made will be reflected on your screen, the Public Display, and on members’ devices.
Creating a New Agenda Item
You can also add an item to your RollCall Pro agenda during the meeting by clicking on the red New button:
This action will display the Agenda Item Editor dialog, which will allow you to edit the new item’s name, its summary text, and/or its voting criteria. Once this dialog is closed, the new item will appear in your Agenda Item Selector dropdown before what had been the current agenda item. In other words, the new item will be inserted ahead of what had been the current or next agenda item.
Motions & Seconds
If you’ve activated this feature, motions and seconds on each agenda item are displayed on the member name grid – both on your Meeting Manager screen and on the Public Display. Depending on your settings, you could record them on-screen as they are called out verbally or they may be recorded automatically as members press Motion and Second buttons on their devices.
If motions and seconds are being made directly by members, their displays will show a Motion button once the group begins to discuss an agenda item:
Whichever member presses their Motion button first will be recorded as having made the motion, and their layout row in the name grid will indicate that they’ve made a motion:
All other voting members’ devices will now display a Second button:
The first member to press this button will be recorded as having seconded the motion, and their layout row in the Meeting Manager will also reflect this:
Once we have a motion and second on the floor, all members’ devices display an Amend button, allowing them to motion to amend:
As the clerk or secretary for the group, you always have the option of clicking on members’ layout row M and 2nd buttons to record motions and seconds.
While you may not be initiating motions and seconds yourself, you are the only one who can withdraw a motion, and you accomplish that by clicking the motioner’s M button to withdraw it. You will be prompted to confirm that you wish to withdraw the motion, so there’s no need to worry that you might do this by mistake.
If your group allows the reconsideration of an agenda item that’s already been discussed/deliberated on, the item may already have a motion and second associated with it. Whenever you reconsider or simply reuse an agenda item that has a motion and second already, you will be prompted to “Keep” or “Clear” them as you discuss the item again:
Managing the RTS Queue
When members request to speak, their requests display in yellow on the clerk’s Meeting Manager screen as well as on the Public Display. If you are numbering the RTS queue, then these requests will also show who raised their hand (digitally) first, second, etc.
The chairperson can recognize anyone in any order, and RollCall Pro allows you to reflect the chair’s decision by clicking on any present member’s RTS icon:
If you wish to recognize members in RTS order, you can click the green Next RTS button that activates to the right of the Item Notes field:
Once a member is recognized, their associated RTS icon blinks in red:
If speakers are recognized out of order, then RollCall Pro automatically renumbers the remaining speakers in the queue.
Note: If your chairperson is using RTS Pro to manage discussion and to activate microphones & cameras automatically through its touchscreen interface, then the Meeting Manager screen merely reflects the actions taken by the chair. The clerk or operator of the Meeting Manager does nothing to recognize speakers on the screen. If RollCall Pro is connected to RTS Pro, RollCall Pro’s RTS icons are disabled and inactive on the Meeting Manager screen.
If your chair is using RTS Pro, there is an additional Request to Speak setting that you should potentially adjust, Mute RTS Pro Speakers for Voting:
If this option is set to “Yes”, then your advancement of RollCall Pro into voting mode on an item will automatically return all microphones to their default status (usually, that’s the “Off” position). Whether or not this option is set to “Yes”, your moving into voting mode will clear all the “Times Recognized” checkmarks on the chair’s RTS Pro screen in preparation for discussion of the next item.
Amending an Agenda Item
With a motion and second already in place, a member (in this case, Doris Night) can motion to amend an item by clicking their Motion button. You can also click on the Motion checkbox on a member’s layout row checkbox. Either way, since there is already a motion on the floor, you will be prompted to confirm this action because there’s already a motion and a second on the floor:
Click on the red Accept button to confirm that this isn’t a mistake, then wait until you get a second from another member. If you do get a second on the motion to amend, RollCall Pro automatically displays the Agenda Item Editor with an item summary of “Motion to Amend” so that you can document the proposed change:
When finished describing the motion to amend, click Ok on this dialog. This process places the motion to amend immediately prior to the original motion, as you can verify using the Agenda Item Selector:
Then you’re ready to click the green Discuss button and bring the motion to amend into discussion mode.
After the motion to amend has been voted on, the system will return to the original item, and what you do at that point depends on whether the motion to amend passed:
- If the motion to amend fails, you’ll take up the original item unmodified.
- If the motion to amend passes, click the yellow Edit button and modify the original item to reflect that it is to be considered “as amended”.
Editing the Consent Agenda
If your group uses consent agendas to vote on relatively routine items as a group, you know there are times when a member will ask that one or more consent agenda items be pulled and dealt with separately. To pull items that are to be voted on individually, click the Consent Items button to the right of the Consent Agenda entry in the Agenda Item Selector dropdown menu:
This will display the Consent Items Viewer, which holds a list of the items in the Consent Agenda:
To pull an item, simply uncheck it – “Pay Bonuses”, for example – and it will be removed from the Consent Agenda and automatically placed after the Consent Agenda:
In this way, the item that has been “pulled” is ready and waiting as soon as we’ve finished voting on the Consent Agenda.
Using the Public Timer
If you would like to display and use a Public Timer on the Public Display, remember that you must have previously:
- Activated this option on the Request to Speak Tab
- Checked the Display Timer checkbox in the Agenda Item Editor
(If you activated the timer feature but forgot to select to display the timer on the current agenda item, use the yellow Edit button to check Display Timer.)
Timer Controls are displayed in the upper right-hand portion of the Meeting Manager screen above Item Notes:
The countdown timer is also displayed on the Public Screen:
Click the green Start button to start the timer, and it will begin counting down:
You can pause the timer by clicking the yellow Pause button, which activates both yellow Resume and Reset buttons:
You can resume the timer from its current value for the current speaker or reset it for the next speaker.
If you would like the Public Timer to fill the entire Public Display, click the green Maximize Timer button. To return to the standard name grid display, click the red Minimize Timer button.
Voting on an Agenda Item
Once an agenda item has been discussed and members’ questions about it have been addressed, the chairperson will call for a vote, and that’s your cue to click the green Vote button:
This will put the Meeting Manager and the Member Apps into voting mode. On the Meeting Manager (your screen), each member’s status indicator will change to “Voting”:
On members’ devices, voting buttons will appear:
When a member presses a voting button, their voting position is highlighted on-screen, and they are given a CHANGE YOUR VOTE button:
Members may change their votes on their own until all voting positions are revealed.
Entering or Editing Votes Manually
During voting sequences, you can enter voting positions manually for a member who might, for example, have a device that’s lost power or who’s participating in the meeting remotely only by phone. To enter a vote on behalf of a member, click the orange Voting dropdown to the right of the member’s name and mark their vote:
Another situation in which you may need to adjust a vote is at the vote tally stage when all the voting positions are displayed and a member requests that their vote be changed. You can do this simply by clicking on the voting position to the right of this member’s name and select a voting position:
The vote tally and the pass/fail outcome will be updated automatically for you. When you click the green NEXT button to proceed to the next item in your agenda, your voting results will be written to your results file and your vote screen image will be saved for you.
Tallying Votes on an Agenda Item
If you have elected to display the Vote Tally as soon as the last voter registers a position, the system will enter the Tally stage automatically, and on your Meeting Manager screen you will see both a Vote Tally (below the name grid) as well as a Pass/Fail Outcome to the right of the tally:
Members will also see the Vote Tally and the Pass/Fail Outcome on their devices:
On the other hand, if you elected to display the vote tally manually, RollCall Pro will present a Tally Confirmation dialog as soon as everyone who is present has cast a vote:
Clicking the Tally button will reveal voters’ positions and update the pass/fail message on the Public Display:
Note: At this point – the tally stage – you may, if needed change a member’s vote on the Meeting Manager screen:
If you make any voting changes, the vote tally as well as the pass/fail outcome will reflect those changes.
Viewing Results
At any point during a meeting – not just at the end – you may review the meeting’s results file and/or saved JPG files using the View menu:
You can review meeting results by choosing “Meeting Results (text only)”, and then you can choose the meeting whose results you want to view from the Meeting Results dialog:
If you choose “Meeting Results (vote screens)”, you are able to select individual vote results JPG files from the Meeting Results dialog:
Adjusting Member Presence & Absence
During a meeting it may be necessary for members to recuse themselves. While they can log themselves out of the session, they don’t always do that. They may just step away, leaving themselves in “present” status. Any time you need to adjust a member’s present/absent status on your own, you actually have two options.
You can click on the member’s blue P button, and this will change their status indicator to “Absent”:
If you want to disconnect them from the session entirely (or “boot” them), you can right-click on their name in the name grid. This will display a confirmation dialog:
Clicking the Ok button will cause their status indicator to become blank:
There are also times when you may wish to indicate that a member is late or excused, or recused – not simply absent. Once a member has been designated as absent after the roll call, you may select up to 3 other user-customizable labels to indicate the type of absence:
These labels are customized in the Voter Button Setup Table on the Setup/Voting/Display tab.
Revoting on an Agenda Item
If you need to revote on an agenda item, use the agenda item dropdown to navigate back to the item, and you will be shown a dialog box that asks you what you wish to do:
If you want to make a copy of the original agenda item, choose the Copy option. This will create a duplicate of the item and place it after the original item in the agenda.
If you want to revote on the item, choose the Revote option, but be aware that this option will results in your overwriting previous results on this item.
If you selected an agenda item that has already been processed by mistake, choose the Cancel option, which will return you to your previous agenda item & stage.
Ending a Meeting
When you are finished with your meeting, click the red End Meeting button:
You will be asked to confirm this action, since it ends the meeting for everyone (booting them out of the system to the login stage), time-stamps the Results file, and calculates Summary Statistics at the bottom of the results file:
These statistics quantify the time you’re saving by having members vote simultaneously rather than sequentially.
