Recommended RSVP Setup for Online or Hybrid Meetings

Here is the process used by clubs like Online Presenters Toastmasters and Club Awesome Toastmasters (which holds hybrid meetings) to share a Zoom link with registered guests. This isn’t the only way to do it, but it’s what has been working for those two clubs for several years.

These examples are based on Zoom, but you should be able to adapt them for other online meeting platforms.

The basic process:

• Use the Zoom “Personal Meeting Room” ID associated with your Zoom account, rather than a link associated with a single meeting date.
• Add that link and online meeting invitation data in the confirmation message that RSVPMaker (the WordPress plugin Toastmost uses for event marketing and registrations).
• The confirmation message will be displayed onscreen once someone has registered and emailed to the address supplied by the meeting guest.

This solution aims to avoid issues like “Zoom bombing” (uninvited guests entering online meetings as a prank). As opposed to publishing the Zoom link publicly on your website, it also gives people a reason to register. Registration is valuable because it gives your VP of Membership and other officers a “lead” they can follow up on with a prospective new member. That can help increase the likelihood that guests will attend and that they will become members.

Use the Zoom Personal Meeting Room Link

Log into your Zoom account and go to the Personal Room tab of the Meetings screen. Every Zoom account is assigned a meeting ID and a PIN security code (which is normally embedded in the Zoom link so guests will not have to enter it manually).

The advantage of this link is that it can stay the same from meeting to meeting. If you ever do have issues with Zoom bombing or have some other reason to change the link, you can do that through Zoom and then make sure you share the new link with members and guests.

Personal experience: I haven’t run into issues with Zoom bombing since the end of COVID, meaning my clubs have been using the same links for years. Note: in the screenshots shared below, the link and account PIN numbers have been altered to avoid inadvertent sharing.

You can also use the Invite Link for a specific meeting, such as a recurring Zoom meeting. However, for the process I’m describing here to work, DO NOT turn on the Registration Required option in your Zoom meeting setup.

Settings for RSVPMaker

As a website administrator, you will find a settings screen for RSVPMaker on the dashboard (the administrative back end) of your website.

The screenshot below is a composite image showing the most relevant settings for online and hybrid meetings.

Recommended basic RSVPMaker settings for online meetings, toggle on:

• RSVP On (collect registrations)
• Show Timezone
• Convert Timezone
• Send Confirmation Email

Be sure to click the floating Save button so your settings will be saved. This changes the defaults for new events, but also see the note below about updating existing events.

Scroll down to the Related Documents section (farther down the form than shown here) and click the down arrow to reveal a preview of the confirmation message. For a new site, the confirmation message will be 2 words, “Thank you!” — but you can include other relevant details about your club, including directions to your physical meeting location.

Click the Default Confirmation Message link to make your edits.

Copying the new defaults

To ensure that all of your existing events and event templates follow the new standards you’ve set and will use the same confirmation message, scroll to the bottom of the settings page and click Copy Defaults. In most cases, you can ignore the selective copy option (where you would check off specific items to copy).

Editing the confirmation message

Editing the confirmation message is like editing any other document in WordPress. Your confirmation message can include images and some basic formatting such as columns, like the one shown below.

How the confirmation message appears to guests

As soon as a guest submits the RSVP registration form, the confirmation message will appear on screen. More importantly, it will be emailed to the guest so they will be able to look up the information later. The email should also trigger the creation of an event on the guest’s calendar in Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, and similar programs.

Note: RSVPMaker sends a “Confirming RSVP Yes for …” message to the person who registered and a separate “RSVP Yes for …” message to the email address or addresses of the club leaders you specified should be notified of new registrations.

The “RSVP To” email list can be set on the Settings → Toastmasters screen or on a per event / per event template basis (for example, a special event for which the notifications list should be different) from the Event Options dialog.

The Confirming RSVP Yes version sent to the guest includes the confirmation message with your Zoom link. The notifications version sent to club leaders instead emphasizes the registration details for the individual guest.

Changing the confirmation message for specific events or event templates

In the example above, we set the default confirmation message and made sure it was duplicated across all events. In some cases, you might want to have a different confirmation message for specific events. For example, you might provide different instructions for how far in advance you want people to log into Zoom or suggest ways visitors might prepare for a special workshop your club is hosting.

If you open a specific event in the editor and click the Event Options button …

… a preview of the confirmation message will be displayed in the Confirmation and Reminder Messages tab, followed by and Edit link you can click to open the document in the WordPress editor.

If you first click Customize for this event, then Edit, RSVPMaker will create a copy of the current message that you can customize to add details that apply only to a single event (or event template).

Note that if you make edits to a confirmation message that is shared across multiple events, all those events may unintentionally wind up advertising details that were specific to a single meeting across all your meetings.

So pay attention to what you’re doing, and test to ensure that you’re having the desired effect (without undesirable side effects). In general, it’s simpler if you can stick to a single confirmation message for all of your events.

For more on working with RSVPMaker, see Events Marketing, Registrations, and Payment with RSVPMaker.

Using Zoom Registration Instead

Zoom has its own meeting registration system, which has its own advantages and tradeoffs. You can use RSVPMaker to advertise and promote events, and have members register via Zoom as an alternative to the method I described above. But it doesn’t make sense to make guests register on your website, and then register AGAIN on Zoom’s website.

You should choose one or the other, RSVPMaker registration or Zoom registration.

If you elect to use Zoom registration, you will want to turn off the Collect RSVPs toggle in your event / event template settings.

Get the registration link from Zoom for your meeting setup. Toggle on Registration Required in your Zoom meeting settings.

Instead of an Invite Link, Zoom will display a Registration link you can copy.

Embed the Registration Link in your event content. In this example, I’ve added the link to a WordPress button block, setting the text of the button to “Register on Zoom” and the link associated with the button to the Registration Link I obtained from Zoom.

I’m using the Agenda Privacy Separator block, placing the button in the section of the page above that divider along with other content I want to be displayed publicly.

Advantage of this method: Uses Zoom’s native registration system.

Disadvantage: You miss out on capturing guest contact information on your website, which helps with follow up by email and with converting guests into members.