Tracking Planned Absences Through the Agenda

Something people have been requesting for a while is an easy way for members to signal that they will miss a specific meeting. Here is what I’ve added:

Planned Absences button and listing on the signup form.

If you place this widget at the bottom of your signup page, members can let the club know they plan to miss the meeting in question by clicking the Planned Absence button. Planned Absences that have been recorded are listed right above the button, along with any “Away Messages.” This information is only displayed to logged in members.

Away Messages, which have been supported for a while now, allow you to signal that you will be missing meetings for some extended period of time (weeks or months) — it’s a message with an expiration date.

Clicking the Planned Absence button works better if I know I’m going to miss, not the next meeting, but the one after that. It’s more precise.

New Agenda Editor Instructions

The “Classic Editor” instructions below are what you will have to do if your website has not moved to the new WordPress editor (code-name: Gutenberg). The new agenda editor takes advantage of custom content blocks for meeting roles, notes to appear on your agenda, and also the button members can click to record a planned absence.

Adding the absences button to your agenda signup form

Classic Editor Instructions

To enable this feature, you must add a placeholder code to your meeting template. I think it works best at the very bottom, as shown below.

Adding the required code in the agenda editor.

The code is:

[tm_absence]

Or, if you want this information to appear on your agenda:

[tm_absence show_on_agenda="1" ]

The absence / away message information also shows up in a few other contexts, such as the drop down list you use to assign members to roles.

Absences indicated in the dropdown list for assigning roles.

Author: David F. Carr

Contact me at 954-757-5827 or david@wp4toastmasters.com

* This software is offered "for Toastmasters" but not is provided by or endorsed by Toastmasters International. The use of Toastmasters brand assets (with proper disclaimers) in website designs has been reviewed by the Toastmasters International brand compliance team.