MS Outlook 2013: How to Send Same Meeting Invite to Different (and Separate) Distribution Lists

[beadedbytes]

Hello. On a regular basis (i.e. bi-monthly), I need to send a meeting invite to 5+ partner companies to set up time to review activities that occurred the prior 2 weeks.

Since we all are separate businesses coming to the same meeting, I want to be able to send the same meeting invite to each partner firm separately. Each distribution list can have 3-7 recipients and want each firm to see who is on their company distribution list (but not other firm's info).

The reason for wanting to send same invite to each firm individually:
* If I need to make changes to the meeting invite message, it's usually for some, not all, firms.
* For some reason, have received complaints about the number of individuals on the combined meeting invite for some reason(?).

Thanks in advance for feedback that would streamline this ongoing process.

 

[kjv1611]

Sounds like a major pain. I had to send out Outlook meeting requests often to internal and external individuals, including a couple of different companies. However I don't think I ran into your scenario.

If I had to do it, I'd initially do it this way:
[ol 1]
[li]Send out the first message/meeting request to the group that has the most common wording with other groups (if that's possible).[/li]
[li]For your next message, you could just forward the first one or create a new item and copy in the contents. if you forward, make sure to take out the "FW:" in subject line and double check there isn't any additional text added you wouldn't want to include.[/li]
[li]Next I'd get my process down pat for exactly how I'm sending these out.[/li]
[li]Once I was sure of the process, I'd build a VBA macro to automate what I'm doing. You may need multiple parts, so you can make modifications along the way. So for instance, if you need to change the text from Email1 to Email2 in any way.[/li]
[li]Once that's done, in this scenario, I'd probably just setup a new tab on the ribbon, and put buttons on that tab in a new group for each step of process.[/li]
[li]Whether you determine the VBA route is worth it or not (may not be, hard to say), I'd also look at creating a template for each recipient group with the most common language as well as subject line and recipients in the message. I'd save the template file to a Windows folder, then drag it into Outlook from that folder into your drafts folder or else in a separate folder if you want to keep it separate. This method seems to work really well for draft emails. I used it for a couple of reporting messages I had to send out weekly/monthly.[/li]
[/ol]



"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57