Member calls

A call is the perk members remember. It turns a monthly payment into a standing appointment: an AMA, office hours, a listening session, a Q&A after a launch. You schedule it, TribeNest puts it on your members' calendar, and everyone joins from their browser.

How to schedule a call

1. Go to Membership then Calls in your dashboard.
2. Click Schedule a call.
3. Fill in the details (covered below).
4. Click Schedule call.

The call appears on your calendar and on the calendar of every member who is allowed to join it.

Call details

Title and description

The title is what members see on their calendar, so make it say what the call is. "September AMA" beats "Call". The description is the longer version: what you will cover, what to bring, whether it is worth showing up late.

Date and start time

The time you type is read in your own time zone. Members see it converted to theirs, so nobody has to do the arithmetic. The date defaults to tomorrow, because a call scheduled for a time that has already passed cannot be saved.

Length

Pick from 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, or 120 minutes.

Who can speak

• Host only: members watch and chat is the AMA shape. Members watch, listen, and use the chat. It scales comfortably to a large tier.
• Everyone can speak is a round table. Every attendee can turn their camera and microphone on. Right for a handful of people, expensive and chaotic for a crowd.

Seat limit

Only offered when everyone can speak. A member arriving after the limit is reached is told the call is full and can try again when somebody leaves. Anyone already in the call is never bumped, so a dropped connection does not cost them their seat. Leave it empty for no limit.

Who can join

Tick the tiers that should get in. Holding any one of them is enough.

Tick nothing and every member with an active membership can join. There is no way for someone without a membership to reach the call: the calendar only ever lists calls the viewer is allowed to enter.

Repeating calls

Weekly office hours are one setup, not fifty.

1. On the Calls page, click Repeating call.
2. Fill in the title, description, first date, start time, and length.
3. Set Repeats to Daily, Weekly, or Monthly, and Every to how many of those between calls (2 for fortnightly, for example).
4. Choose when it Ends: After a number of calls, On a date, or Never.
5. Set who can speak, any seat limit, and which tiers can join.
6. Click Create schedule.

The first call happens exactly on the date you picked and the pattern follows it, so choosing a Tuesday and a weekly repeat gives you Tuesdays. Every call stays at the same local time, which means a 6pm call is still 6pm after the clocks change rather than drifting by an hour.

A schedule that never ends does not quietly run out. TribeNest creates about a year of calls ahead and keeps extending that window for you.

Your schedules

Once you have one, a table sits above the calendar with a row per schedule:

• Repeating, the schedule's title.
• Pattern, the repeat in plain English, for example "Weekly on Tuesday, 12 times".
• Scheduled through, how far ahead the individual calls have been created.

Open a row's menu and click Archive schedule to stop it producing new calls.

The calendar

Your calls show as a month you can page through with the arrows either side of the month name. A Today button appears whenever you have wandered off the current month.

Each day shows up to three calls, with a +N more chip when there are others. A coloured dot tells you the state at a glance: a plain dot for scheduled, a green dot when a recording is ready to watch, and a struck-through row for a call that was cancelled.

On a phone the grid becomes a simple agenda: the days that have calls, in order, each one tappable.

Because it is a calendar rather than a list, last month is one arrow away. There is no filter to remember.

Opening a call

Click any call to open its details:

• When it is, how long it runs, and whether everyone can speak or only you.
• The tiers that can join, as badges.
• Your description.

From there you can:

• Open call to go into the room yourself.
• Copy link to paste the call link into an email or a post.
• Edit to change the time, the audience, or who can speak.
• Cancel call.

Once you are inside, being in a call covers the whole screen: muting, sharing your screen, raised hands, chat and recording.

Underneath, the recording: Watch recording with its length once one is ready, "A recording is processing" while it is being prepared, or "No recording yet". A transcript and the call's chat history are marked Coming soon so you know where they will appear.

Cancelling

Cancelling stops members joining, and if the call is happening right now everybody in it is disconnected. It cannot be undone, so schedule a new call rather than trying to bring a cancelled one back. The confirmation says all of this before you commit.

What your members see

Members get a Calendar tab in their member area as soon as you have ever run a call. It is the same month grid, showing only calls they are allowed to join, plus recordings of ones that have already happened.

Opening a call shows them the time in their own zone, the length, whether they can speak or only listen and chat, and your description. Then whichever of these applies:

• Join call, once the room is open.
• Opens in 3 hours, counting down to the moment they can get in rather than to the start time.
• Watch recording with its length, once one is ready.
• "Recording is processing", while it is being prepared.
• "This call has ended", when there is nothing left to do.

If nothing is on this month they see "Nothing this month" and a nudge to look at another month, along with a link to what a membership includes.

Where to go next

• Decide which tiers a call is worth: membership tiers.
• Announce it where your members already are: community spaces or messages.
• Email the invite from emails.