All graduate students face a periodic, essential chore: scheduling a committee meeting for from 30 minutes to 3 hours. For some, this may only happen three times. For others, it may happen once a year. Trying to arrange for five faculty members to be in one place can be an amazingly onerous. The longer the scheduling process drags on, the more onerous it becomes for you, for them, for everybody. So here are some tips.

Get with your advisor at the beginning of the school year/semester and, while reviewing your goals, specifically address the need for a meeting. If you agree that a meeting is called for, do the following.

1. Agree on the agenda. Is this an “official meeting”, required by your graduate college that involves paperwork? Assemble the paperwork, and review the protocols.
2. Write a draft of the email to your committee. Be concise, but include the need for a meeting, and the agenda, and the duration. Helpful hint: it is easier to schedule a 30-minute meeting than a one-hour meeting. It is infinitely easier to schedule a 1-hour meeting than a 3-hour meeting. Err on the side of brevity. This may mean sticking with your agenda, but, then, that’s why you have an agenda.
3. Now, review your advisor’s schedule. Identify dates that your advisor will be around and available.

OK, so far, you’ve met early in the year/semester with your advisor to discuss plans, including the need for a meeting. You have the agenda, and have decided on the minimal amount of time to get everything done. You have a draft of the email. Now aim for 4-week period in the middle of the semester to meet. Be aware of potential trouble spots (a spate of faculty interviews) and of regular departmental time sinks (faculty meetings) that will suck up scheduling opportunities.

1. Use your advisor’s availability as a template for an online scheduling site (I highly recommend, because Ethan White highly recommends, whenisgood). Don’t simply ask each member of your committee “When are you available in October?” (Imagine having to answer that question in detail yourself. It ain’t easy.). Remember, you want this to be as painless as possible.
2. Now email your committee (CC your advisor), propose the meeting, time, agenda, and ask them to visit the online scheduling site and indicate their availability. Tell them that your dear advisor has already filled it out, and that it does not include shared commitments like faculty meetings, seminars, etc. Tell them it should take only 5 minutes, and that you are emailing them well ahead of time to make it as easy as possible (because you are).
3. Stick with it until everything is done and your meeting exists on 6 different calendars, a small block of time that you worked hard for, and that is all yours. Now shine, you crazy diamond, shine.

By extension, here are a few sentences to avoid when you are scheduling.

            “I need a committee meeting, howabout late Thursday next week?” (i.e., forget to mention why are we meeting, how long are we meeting, and scheduling early enough that the committee’s schedule hasn’t filled up).

            “I know I tried to schedule our meeting a month ago, but I couldn’t get find a suitable time. I’m trying again now, and I really need to meet this semester if I want to graduate.” (i.e., don’t procrastinate, once you start the scheduling process, finish it. Until you’ve nailed down a date and time, that slot is fair game to all the other things that tend to fill up a professor’s schedule).

 “Sorry folks, but my advisor, Professor Tardy, was the last to log in to whenisgood, and he can’t make any of your times.” (Hoo boy, faux pas city. Get yer advisor on board first, particularly if that advisor is “very busy”).

In short, be early; be concise; be considerate; be professional. Bonus: you will earn the reputation for being just that.