Please note: A PDF version of this guide is available for download at the bottom of the article.

This manual will review the aspects of review board meetings in iRIS: meeting agenda reviews, how board members can set their availability for attendance, and generating meeting agendas and minutes. Before you can use the meeting functionality in the system, you need to ensure that the “rb.use_meetings” property located under Review Board Administration > Board Configuration Options > Submission Review Properties is set to “Yes.” Also, there are certain configurations that must be setup in Review Board Administration in order to properly display submissions within a Meeting Agenda and to generate Agenda and Minutes documents. Any item that requires configuration will be noted in this document with the steps to locate the configuration in iRIS, as well as referencing the manual that reviews that specific configuration item.

Meeting Manager

Within the Meeting Manager, you can view meeting agendas, set meeting attendance, and set items to be reviewed at the meeting. Access to this menu item is controlled with the Role Access matrix in Review Board Administration. The Meeting Manager is typically reserved for a review board administrator. You can view current agendas and publish/create Word document versions of Agendas and Meeting Minutes to send to review board members. The Agenda and Meeting Minutes templates are created in Review Board Configuration. For more information on creating Agenda and Minutes templates, see the IACUC Assistant – RB Administration Manual.

The Meeting Manager page lists all the meetings defined for the Review Board, displaying the newest meetings at the top of the list. You can search for a meeting date by entering filter information in the Meetings from/to date fields and clicking the Refresh button. This displays any meetings that fall under the dates you selected. You can switch back to viewing all the meetings by clicking the Show all meetings button.

Below is a description of the columns on this page.

Meeting Date – You can click on one of the Meeting Dates to create Word documents for the Agenda and Minutes, change the meeting status and to send out the Agenda and Minutes to the board members.  More information about this subject appears later in this document.

Agenda State –Displays the agenda status as “Draft” or “Finalized,” or, if any revisions have been made to the Agenda, “Revision 1,” “Revision 2,” etc.

Notify Reviewers – Displays the current setting for email notifications to reviewers.  If this is set to “Enabled,” then once the agenda is finalized, all appropriate email notifications are created and sent to the reviewers, alerting them that they have been assigned to review certain submissions. When the status is set to “Disabled,” this indicates that reviewers have not received their notifications or tasks yet.

Date Draft Published Minutes Sent for Comments – Indicates the date a published draft version of the minutes was sent via email to board members for review.

Date Final Published Minutes Approved by Committee – Indicates the date the final, published minutes were approved by the committee. A motion can be added to a meeting date to approve a previous month’s minutes. When the board votes on the minutes, the date of that meeting is captured in this column.

Date Final Published Minutes Sent to the Meeting Attendees – On the Meeting Minutes screen, you have the option to send out a final copy of the minutes to the meeting attendees. This column will populate with that date.

Availability – This icon links to the Meeting Availability page so you can set a member’s availability to be present at the meeting, or whether they are available for review.

Edit/View Reviews & Minutes – Depending on the status of the meeting minutes for that meeting date, a link to view the Draft or Finalized Minutes will populate.

Meeting Schedule

From the Meeting Manager, you can add a new meeting date. Click the Meeting Schedule button on the top right of the screen to get started.

A new page opens, broken into two parts. The first part of the page lists recurring meetings, and the second part of the page lists regular meeting dates that are individually created. Note that this list only shows meetings that have not yet occurred; past meeting dates are not shown. Once a date has come and gone, it no longer appears in this list. You can set up a recurring meeting pattern if your board meets on a regular basis each month. When you create a recurrence, the system creates meeting dates for up to 12 months and populates them in the second portion of the page. If you do not use a recurring pattern for your meetings, add meetings individually using the second part of the page.

Recurring Meetings

Click on the Add a New Reccurring button.

A new page opens. You must first enter the meeting information. You can provide specific details about the meeting. “IACUC Meeting” is the name used to reference this recurring pattern. Start Date is a required field and would be the beginning date that the recurring meeting dates would trigger from. The Start Date does not have to be the day of the first meeting. iRIS does not generate any meeting before the start date, only dates after the start date. Start Time and End Time are fields where you enter the planned meeting start and end time. Meeting Type is a required field. This is a drop down list of your committees for the Review Board. Meeting Location allows you to specify where the meeting will be held. This can be set up now, and changed for an individual meeting at a later time. A comments field is also provided in case you need to document anything related to the meeting record.

After you add the meeting details, setup the recurring pattern. The meeting can be setup to generate weekly or monthly. You can choose your desired meeting pattern by selecting the option from the Change Recurrence Pattern dropdown list. Depending on your selection, the information below changes, allowing you to set up a weekly or monthly pattern.

Click on the Save Meeting Schedule button and the system generates 12 months’ worth of meeting dates based on the pattern you setup.

You can modify an existing recurring pattern if necessary; however, note that any changes made to the pattern will not update any meetings that have already been generated based on that pattern.

You can also delete a recurring pattern; however, deleting a recurring pattern does not delete the meeting records that were created because of the recurring pattern. These must be deleted separately.

Add a New Meeting

You can setup an individual meeting as needed. To do this, click on the Add a New Meeting button.

A new page opens. You can provide specific details about the meeting. The Meeting Date is a required field and this indicates the date for the meeting. Start Time and End Time are fields where you can enter the planned meeting start and end times. Submission Due By is a date field used to inform study personnel when a form should be submitted to make it onto the meeting agenda. Meeting Type is a required field. This is a dropdown list of your committees for the Review Board. Meeting Location allows you to specify where the meeting will be held. This can be set up now and changed later. There is also a comments field provided in case additional documentation related to the meeting is necessary.

After you enter all the necessary information, click on the Save Meeting Schedule button to add the meeting to the list of meetings.

You can edit the details of any meeting set up in the system by clicking on the icon located in the Edit column.

A new page opens, allowing you to modify any of the details for the meeting. Make any necessary changes and then click on the Save Meeting Schedule button to return to the list of meetings.

Meeting Agenda/Meeting Minutes

From the meeting manager, you can prepare for a certain meeting by clicking on the link for the meeting date. Doing this enables you to set the agenda status, enable reviewer notifications, generate your meeting agenda, and, once a meeting takes place, you can generate and send out the minutes.

Meeting Agenda

Click on the name of the meeting under the column Meeting Date.

A new page opens displaying meeting agenda options for the meeting date you selected. If you have not generated the meeting agenda for this meeting yet, the page displays as shown in the screenshot below. Access the Meeting Agenda page in iRIS by clicking on the link next to the yellow folder that reads Click to Open the Meeting Agenda.

This opens the Meeting Agenda, allowing you to make any changes to the agenda before generating the agenda template.

Click the Back button to return to the previous page.

Meeting Status – When you are ready to generate the meeting agenda, set the status from “Draft” to “Finalized”.

Enable Reviewer Notifications – When you are ready to notify reviewers about their review assignments for a meeting date, switch this status from “No” to “Yes.” As soon as you set this option to “Yes,” assigned reviewers receive an email notification with their reviewer assignments, as well as receive a homepage task. At this point, you can now send out the published version of the agenda to the board members.

A Finalized Agenda displays underneath the Meeting Agenda Options once you change the Meeting Status from Draft to Finalized. Click the Generate  A Finalized Agenda Document link.

iRIS will grab your Meeting Agenda Template as it is set up under Review Board Administration > Setup Finalized Agenda Document Template. This is a Microsoft Word document that uses merge codes to pull in specific information about the meeting and items placed on that meeting. When the agenda template is generated, the screen refreshes and three new links are now available.

Check-Out The Finalized Agenda For Editing In Word – After you generate your agenda, you can check the document out to make any edits on your computer using Microsoft Word. Click on this link.

A new window opens and your Internet browser will download the template. Internet Explorer is used in this example. Depending on your Internet settings, you may have a blocker installed that prevents you from downloading files without approval. Wait a few moments and the browser may prompt you with a yellow bar at the top or bottom of the page. Click the yellow bar, select Download File, and then Open or Save from the menu that appears (you will receive a different button depending on the browser/browser version you are using). Do this before clicking the Complete Checkout button. If you click Complete Checkout before saving the file to your desktop, you will lose the template and will need to regenerate the agenda to get it back.

When you select to download the file, a popup window asks you if you would like to open or save the document. You can do either; however, it is recommended that you save the document before opening. Make sure you save the document to a location on your computer that you will remember.

Once this is complete, you need to click on the Complete Checkout button within the browser. If you did not want to check out the document, click the Cancel button. This returns you to the previous page without checking out the agenda document.

If you have the document checked out, you will not be able to do anything more with the agenda template until you check it back in. The screen displays only one link, Check-In Finalized Agenda.

If another user views this page while the agenda document is checked out, they will see that it is checked out, along with the name of the user who currently has this document checked out. They will not be able to view, modify, or publish the agenda until the document is checked back in.

Once you make any necessary edits to the agenda in Microsoft Word on your computer, you can check it back in to iRIS.

Navigate back to the meeting page for the meeting date.

Click the link Check-In Finalized Agenda.

A popup window opens, allowing you to browse your computer for the agenda document you would like to upload. Click the Save selected file button once you specify the document location. If you do not want to upload the document, click on the Cancel button.

After you save the file, the links will be restored to the page and you can continue to work on publishing the agenda.

Edit The Finalized Agenda Within The Browser – Click on this link to view the generated agenda as well as make changes to the document without having to check it out to your computer.

A new page opens with an embedded Microsoft Word tool containing the generated agenda. The Microsoft Word editor is a feature only available when using Internet Explorer as your browser.

You may make any changes needed to the document by typing in or copying and pasting in text.

You can also insert pre-defined template language if needed. Click on the Insert Template Language button.

A small popup window will open, containing a list of available language. Template languages are set up in Review Board Administration > Setup Template Language. In the window above, select the template language you would like to insert.

The window updates, displaying the full content of the template language. If this is the template you would like to merge into the agenda document, make sure you position your cursor to the location in the agenda document where you want the language to appear. Then, click on the Insert Template Language button.

The meeting agenda page refreshes, and the language will be inserted in the document where you had positioned the cursor.

While you are editing the agenda document, click on the Save Change button at the top right of the page periodically to save your work. When you are finished, be sure to save again, then click on the Back button.

Publish The Finalized Version Of The Agenda - After making any necessary edits, whether you had checked out the document or edited within the browser, you are ready to publish the agenda.

When you publish the agenda, the screen will pause for several moments (depending on the size of your agenda document). At this time, iRIS is taking the Word document version of the agenda and converting it to a PDF.

The links on the page change when the conversion is complete. When you publish the agenda, the agenda is locked down to editing, as the agenda is ready to be sent out to members. You can click the Unpublish The Finalized Agenda link to reset the agenda. This refreshes the screen and allows you to check out the agenda document or edit within the browser. When you are finished making your changes, you will want to publish the agenda again. You can also click the View The Finalized Agenda Document button to see the agenda document in a PDF. Clicking this link opens the document in a new window.

Send The Finalized Agenda Document To All Members – Click this link to email the published agenda template to all board members in preparation for the meeting. This option will only display if Enable Reviewer Notifications is set to “Yes,” and you have published the agenda.

Expedite Report

If your meeting agenda contains Expedited submissions, you may want to use the Expedite Report functionality to generate a report summarizing the Expedited submissions on your agenda. The template for the Expedite Report is configured under Review Board Administration > Setup Expedite Report Template. This is a Microsoft Word document that uses merge codes to pull in specific information about expedited submissions on the agenda.

Click the Generate An Expedite Report link and more options will populate.

Check-Out The Expedite Report For Editing In Word – After you generate your expedite report, you can check the document out to make any edits on your computer using Microsoft Word. Click on this link.

A new window will open, and your Internet browser will download the report. Internet Explorer is used in this example. Depending on your Internet settings, you may have a blocker installed that prevents you from downloading files without approval. Wait a few moments, and the browser may prompt you with a yellow bar at the top or bottom of the page. Click the yellow bar, select Download File, and then Open or Save from the menu that appears (you will receive a different button depending on the browser/browser version you are using). Do this before clicking the Complete Checkout button. If you click Complete Checkout before saving the file to your desktop, you will lose the template and will need to regenerate the agenda to get it back.

When you select to download the file, a popup window will ask you if you would like to open or save the document. You can do either; however, we recommend that you save the document before opening. You will want to make sure you save the document to a location on your computer that you will remember.

Once this is complete, you need to click on the Complete Checkout button within the browser. If you did not want to check out the document, click the Cancel button. This will return you to the previous page without checking out the expedite report.

If you have the document checked out, you will not be able to do anything more with the expedite report until you check it back in. The screen will display only one link, Check-In Expedited Report.

If another user views this page while the document is checked out, they will see that it is checked out, along with the name of the user who currently has this document checked out. They will not be able to view, modify, or publish the agenda until the document is checked back in.

Once you make any necessary edits to the report in Microsoft Word on your computer, you can check it back in to iRIS.

Navigate back to the page for the meeting date.

Click the Check-In Expedited Agenda link.

A popup window will open, allowing you to browse your computer for the document you would like to upload. Click the Save selected file button once you specify the document location. If you do not want to upload the document, click on the Cancel button.

After you save the file, the links will be restored to the page and you will be able to continue to work on publishing the report.

Edit The Expedite Report Within The Browser – You can click on this link to view the generated expedite report as well as make changes to the document without having to check it out to your computer.

A new page will open with an embedded Microsoft Word tool containing the generated report. The Microsoft Word Editor feature is only available when using Internet Explorer as your browser.

You may make any changes needed to the document by typing in or copying and pasting in text.

You can also insert pre-defined template language if needed. Click on the Insert Template Language button.

A small popup window will open, containing a list of available languages. Template language is set up under Review Board Administration > Setup Template Language. In the window above, select the template language you would like to insert.

The window will update, displaying the full content of the template language. If this is the language you would like to merge into the agenda document, make sure you position your cursor at the location in the document where you want the language to appear. Then, click on the Insert Template Language button.

The expedite report page will refresh, and the language will be inserted in the document where you had positioned the cursor.

When you are done editing the document, click on the Save Change button at the top right of the page to return to the previous screen.

Publish The Expedite Report — After making any necessary edits, whether you had checked out the document or edited within the browser, you are ready to publish the expedite report.

When you publish the report, the screen will pause for several moments (depending on the size of your document). At this time, iRIS is converting the Word document you have been working on to a PDF. After the expedite report is published, the Expedite Reports section of the agenda will populate as described earlier in the manual.

The links on the page will change when the conversion is complete. When you publish the expedite report, it is locked down for editing, as the report is ready to be sent out to members. You can click the Unpublish The Expedite Report link to reset the agenda. This will refresh the screen and allow you to check out the document or edit it within the browser again. When you are finished making your changes, you will need to publish the report again. You can also click the View The Expedite Report button to see the document in a PDF format. Clicking this link will open the document in a new window.

Send The Expedite Report To All Members – You can click this link to email the published expedite report to all board members, in preparation for the meeting. This option will only display if Enable Reviewer Notifications is set to “Yes” and you have published the agenda.

Meeting Minutes

Once the day of the meeting is in the past, a new area populates in the page called “Meeting Minutes Options” and you now can generate the minutes for that meeting. You can generate a meeting minutes document similar to the meeting agenda template. You can also edit the document and publish it. After the minutes are published, you will be able to include the minutes in a future meeting motion for approval.

Begin by clicking the Generate The Minutes From The Agenda link.

iRIS will use your Meeting Minutes Template as it is set up under Review Board Administration > Setup Meeting Minutes Document Template. This is a Microsoft Word document that uses merge codes to pull in specific information about the meeting and items placed on that meeting. When the minutes template is generated, the screen refreshes and you will see four new links available.

Check-Out The Minutes For Editing In Word – After you generate your minutes, you can check the document out to make any edits on your computer using Microsoft Word. Click on this link.

A new window opens and your Internet browser downloads the template. Internet Explorer is used in this example. Depending on your Internet settings, you may have a blocker installed that prevents you from downloading files without approval. Wait a few moments and the browser may prompt you with a yellow bar at the top or bottom of the page. Click the yellow bar, select Download File, and then Open or Save from the menu that appears (you will receive a different button depending on what browser/browser version you are using). Do this before clicking the Complete Checkout button. If you click Complete Checkout before saving the file to your desktop, you will lose the template and will need to regenerate the agenda to get it back.

When you select to download the file, a popup window asks you if you would like to open or save the document. You can do either; however, we recommend that you save the document before opening. You want to make sure you save the document to a location on your computer that you will remember.

Once this is complete, you need to click on the Complete Checkout button within the browser. If you did not want to check out the document, click the Cancel button. This returns you to the previous page without checking out the minutes document.

If you have the document checked out, you cannot do anything more with the minutes template until you check it back in. The screen displays only one link, Check-In The Minutes.

If another user views this page while the minutes document is checked out, they will see that it is checked out, along with the name of the user that currently has checked out the document. They will not be able to view, modify, or publish the minutes until the document is checked back in.

Once you make any necessary edits to the minutes in Microsoft Word on your computer, you can check it back in to iRIS. Navigate back to the meeting page for the meeting date.

Click the Check-In The Minutes button.

A popup window opens, allowing you to browse your computer for the minutes document you would like to upload. Click the Save selected file button once you specify the document location. If you do not want to upload the document, click on the Cancel button.

After you save the file, the links are restored to the page and you can continue to work on publishing the minutes.

Edit The Minutes Within The Browser – Click on this link to view the generated minutes as well as make some changes to the document without having to check it out to your computer.

A new page opens with an embedded Microsoft Word tool containing the generated minutes. The Microsoft Word editor is a feature only available when using Internet Explorer as your browser.

You may make any changes needed to the document by typing in or copying and pasting in text.

You can also insert pre-defined template languages if needed. Click on the Insert Template Language button.

A small popup window opens, containing a list of available language. These template languages are setup under Review Board Administration > Setup Template Language. In the window, click on the template language you would like to insert.

The window updates, displaying the full content of the template language. If this is the template you would like to merge into the minutes document, make sure you position your cursor to the location in the minutes document where you want the language to appear. Then, click on the Insert Template Language button.

The meeting minutes page refreshes, and the language is inserted in the document where you had positioned the cursor.

While you are editing the minutes document, click on the Save Changes button on the top right of the page periodically to save your work. When you are finished, be sure to save again, and then click on the Back button.

Publish A Draft Version Of The Minutes – Publish a draft version of the minutes if you need to send out the draft to the board members for review.

When you publish the draft minutes, the screen pauses for a few moments (depending on the size of your minutes document). At this time, iRIS is taking the Word document version of the minutes and converting it to a PDF.

The links on the page change when the conversion is complete. When you publish the draft minutes, the minutes template is still available for editing. Make sure that if you modify the minutes that you publish the draft version of the minutes again. There are several options available to you at this point. Each is described below.

Publish The Final Version Of The Minutes – Click on this link when you are ready to publish a finalized version of the minutes. This would mean that you have verified the minutes are complete and ready to be approved by the board. When you click on this button, the system generates a PDF version. The page refreshes and you are no longer able to modify the minutes. If modifications are needed, un-publish the minutes, make your changes, and then publish the minutes again.

Send Out A Copy Of The Draft Minutes To The Meeting Attendees – If you would like to send a copy of the Draft Minutes to the attending members of the meeting, click on this link. The system generates an email with the Draft Minutes PDF attached and sends it to anyone who was marked present at this meeting.

When you click on this link, a popup message indicates that an email was sent.

After the page refreshes, a date field populates underneath the link used to send the draft minutes. This date field populates with the date on which the draft minutes were sent out.

View The Draft Version Of The Minutes – You can view the PDF version of the Draft Minutes by clicking on this link. The PDF opens in a separate window.

Do you want to route the minutes for approval? – You can email the minutes to a specific member or a group of members for review. Set this from No to Yes to get started.

A link, “Click here to generate the routing list,” populates on the page.

A new page opens when you click on the link. This page allows you to specify the member or members who need to review the draft minutes. There are two ways to add a user to approve and signoff on the draft minutes:

1. Add Review Board Routing– This allows you to choose from any review board member.

2. Add Non-Review Board Routing– This allows you to choose any user in the iRIS database, regardless of their access to the Review Board.

After selecting the users required to signoff, their records appear as shown in the screen shot below.

Below is a description of the columns on this page.

Delete Selected Routing(s) – This button deletes all users selected for signoff via the checkboxes next to their name.

Order Number – Specifies who receives the signoff task first and in what order.

Name – This is the name of the user (selected from the drop down menu) being assigned to review the minutes.  

Signoff – This column is used for the current logged-in user. An icon populates in this column for each personnel.  If you are looking at this page and are selected as the signoff personnel, the icon next to your name becomes editable and you can sign off on the minutes by selecting this icon.

Approved – This area displays the status of the minutes after the user has approved or denied it.

Include Signature – If this field is set to “Yes,” the user’s electronic signature is required when they approve the minutes.

Date Received – Date user receives the minutes for signature.

Date Completed – Date the user applies electronic signature.

Comments – Any comments the user may have entered here upon sign off.

Once all routing selections are made, select the “Yes” radio button next to the field Have you completed your selection of required signatures? This enables the selected users to signoff.

Navigating back to the previous screen, the link updates to reflect the status of the routing.

Any user assigned to review the draft minutes receives a task on their homepage in the RB Meeting Minutes Routing Signoff group.

A new page opens when the user opens their task. The page displays the PDF within the browser and details to the left of the PDF.

Meeting Type (the committee name) and Meeting Date display at the top of the page. An Approve or Deny option is available in the dropdown list. The user needs to select one or the other and then apply their electronic signature if they are approving the draft minutes. Comments can also be added within this page. After adding the necessary information, the user must click the Save Meeting Minute Review button.

This causes the status of the routing to update. If the draft minutes are approved, you may continue with processing the minutes. If the minutes were denied, you can open the link to view any comments the reviewer may have left. To make any corrections, regenerate the minutes and publish another draft version of the minutes.

Publish The Final Version Of The Minutes – After any necessary draft minutes are published, sent out, reviewed, and approved (if necessary) you can then move on to publishing the finalized version of the minutes.

When you publish the minutes, the screen pauses for several moments (depending on the size of your minutes document). At this time, iRIS is taking the Word document version of the minutes and converting it to a PDF.

The links on the page change when the conversion is complete. When you publish the final version of the minutes, the minutes are locked down to editing, as the minutes are ready to be approved by members. You can click the Unpublish The Final Version Of The Minutes link to reset the minutes. This refreshes the screen and allows you to check out the minutes document or edit within the browser. When you are finished making your changes, publish the final minutes again. You can also click the View The Final Version Of The Minutes link to see the minutes document in a PDF. Clicking this link opens the document in a new window.

The Date Final Minutes Approved by Committee field will populate beneath the link to view the minutes. This date will update with the date the minutes were approved by the committee. This is done when a motion is created on the Meeting Agenda page that pulls in the minutes from this meeting. You can also manually set the approval date by selecting a date and clicking on the Set button.

If you Send Out a Final Copy Of The Minutes To The Meeting Attendees, the Date Final Minutes Sent to the Meeting Attendees field will auto-populate with the date the minutes were sent. You can also enter a date manually. Be sure to click the Set button to save the date in this field.

Once you publish the final version of the minutes, there is typically nothing left that needs to be done to the minutes, unless they are denied at a meeting. In that case, un-publish the minutes, make any changes, and publish them so they can be voted on again.

Meeting Agenda

The Meeting Agenda link within the IACUC Assistant menu allows users to view information related to a specific meeting date. A user can access past and future meetings from this area. If you have a review board administrator role, you can come to this area to prepare for an upcoming meeting. If your role does not have this administrative privilege, you can come to this area to look at submissions placed on a particular meeting date. Roles that have read/write access to this page are setup in Setup Role Access in Review Board Administration.

The Meeting Agenda page will also be visited during an actual board meeting, so items to be reviewed at the meeting can be opened in iRIS and discussed and updated during the meeting, in real time.

When the link from the IACUC Assistant menu is clicked, the IACUC – Review Board Meeting Agenda page opens, displaying the next upcoming meeting. If other meeting dates have been entered in the system, you will be able to flip the page between different meeting dates using the green arrows located to the right and left of the current meeting date (see the screenshot below).

The Review Board Meeting Agenda page lists all information related to the Meeting Agenda in iRIS including the current meeting state, meeting attendance information, meeting business, start and end times, and any submissions that have been placed on the meeting.

Each item on this page is explained in more detail below.

Agenda State – This appears as either “Draft” or “Finalized,” or, if revisions of the agenda have been made, “Revision 1,” “Revision 2,” etc. “Draft” means that the agenda template has not been started and this meeting is still in setup mode. “Finalized” means the agenda is ready for the meeting. Any status of “Revision” indicates that a Finalized Meeting has been revised to accommodate late submissions.

Reviewer Notifications – This appears as either “Enabled” or “Disabled”. “Enabled” means reviewers assigned to submissions on this meeting date have been notified of their assignments. “Disabled” means reviewers have not yet been notified.

Items to be reviewed at Meeting – All the items following this label are represented at the meeting. The word “Committee 01” in this case is the name of the committee. This label will be different in your system, depending on the names of your committees.

If your role allows write access to this page, you will be able to modify the following fields:

Meeting Attendance

Meeting Attendance is initially empty for a meeting. Attendance is typically tracked the day of the meeting.

When you click the Meeting Attendance link, a new page opens, listing all available members and staff of the review board. Each member is listed with additional information, as shown in the table below. This information reflects details from their user accounts. You will be able to mark which members are present at the meeting by clicking on the checkbox next to their name.

If you have alternate members, you can indicate who they are alternates for by selecting a name from the drop down list. A member is designated as an alternate in their user account.

If there are any guests present at the meeting, you can add their attendance by clicking on the “Click here to modify the guest list” link, right above the guest table.

A new page opens. This page lists any guests added to the meeting. The first time you click on this link, the table will be empty, as no guests have been added to the meeting yet. Click on the Add Meeting Guest button to add a guest.

This opens another page allowing you to type the guest’s name, indicate his or her specialty, and enter the guest’s affiliation. Specialty can be configured in System Administration > List Configuration and Maintenance > Site List Setup > Study Management > Specialty. After entering the necessary information, click on the Save Guest Info button.

The record is added to the guest list table. You can add more guests as needed. Delete a guest by clicking the icon in the Delete column. Click the Back button when you are finished to take you to the previous page.

The guest is added to the list of users present at the meeting. After you select which users are present at the meeting, click on the Save Changes button.

You will return to the Meeting Agenda page. The Meeting Attendance column is updated, reflecting attendance based on the selections you have made. You can modify the attendance any time before Meeting Minutes are published for the meeting.

Call to Order, Old and New Business, Miscellaneous and Closing Comments

The links for Call to Order, Old Business, New Business, Miscellaneous and Closing Comments allow you to enter information either prior to the meeting or while the meeting is being held. These items can all be used as merge codes in the Meeting Minutes template.

You can click on any of these links to open a rich text editor. From here, type in or copy and paste your text. When you are finished, click the OK button.

The meeting agenda page displays any text entered via the text editor in the fields to the right of the corresponding label.

Meeting Motions

Use the Meeting Motion section to capture board member votes and approval for previous meeting minutes.

When you first open the Meeting Motions page, no motions are listed. You can add a motion by clicking on the Add Mintues Approval button or the Add a New Motion button.

Add Minutes Approval – To approve minutes from a past meeting, click this button. A new screen displays containing a list of previous meeting minutes.

You will only be able to select minutes from past meetings in which the minutes were generated and published. Otherwise, meeting dates are not listed.

You can view the published minutes by clicking the View Finalized Minutes button. This opens the published minutes in a PDF document in a separate window.

Select the meeting for which you would like to approve the minutes at this meeting, and then click on the Save Selected Minutes for Member Approval button.

You are returned to the previous page, and a record will be added with the motion text “Meeting Minutes Approval for the ‘Committee Name’ Meeting held on ‘Meeting Date’”. Underneath the motion text, you will be able to indicate how the members voted.

Depending on your Review Board Configurations, the motion you added may or may not be set for anonymous voting.  For more details on setting this configuration, please refer to the IACUC Assistant > Properties Manual.

If your system is configured with anonymous voting, a screen appears similar to the screenshot above. Enter the number of members in each Vote Type category in the Number text fields as well as any necessary comments. Be sure to click Save the Vote Summary when you are finished entering information.

If the anonymous voting configuration is off, the added motion appears as shown below.

Attendance needs to be set before voting can take place. If attendance has not been taken for this meeting yet, you cannot complete the vote.

The vote type is selected in the Vote column next to each Member’s Name. Each Member’s Specialty, Affiliation, and Alternate information is also found under the corresponding columns.

Add a New Motion – If you need to capture a vote for a general meeting item (that is not specific to a submission) you can add a new motion and manually enter the motion text.

When you click on this button, a new page opens containing a rich text editor. You can enter or copy and paste your motion language, and then click on the OK button. The vote is added to the list of meeting motions and you can capture the vote in the exact same way as described above in the Minutes Motion section of this manual.

After the votes for the motions have been set, select the Save button. The votes will be saved and can be used to merge into the Meeting Minutes template (see the IACUC Assistant – RB Administration Manual for more information about the Meeting Minutes templates).

After you add and save the meeting’s motions, motion summaries display on the Meeting Agenda page to the right of the Meeting Motion link. If you pull in that information, this is how the merged motion displays in the Meeting Minutes template.

Whether you use anonymous voting or not, the motion summary does not pull the member's names. Only a total number of votes for each voting category displays.

Review Documents

If there are any documents that need to be presented and reviewed at a meeting, they can be uploaded to the meeting agenda page and pulled up during the meeting. These would be documents that are not specific to a submission.

Click on the Review Documents link.

A new page opens, containing a list of documents attached to the meeting. The list is empty if no documents have been added. Click the Add a New Document button.

A new page opens. Type in the title of the document and provide a description, if applicable. Click on the Upload button to browse your computer for the document you would like to upload.

If the location is unknown, select the Browse button to browse through your system files.  After the file is located, select the Save Selected File button to upload the file or the Cancel button to cancel the process.

After the document is uploaded, a document icon displays to the left of the Description field.  To replace this document with another one, select the Upload button again, followed by Save Document.  

The attachment appears in the Review Documents table.  You can delete attachment(s) or add more attachment(s) as necessary by clicking on the Review Documents link again.

Expedite Reports

If the review board property rb.use_expedited_report is set to Yes within the Meeting Settings group, you will see the Expedite Reports sections. If an Expedite Report has been generated, a PDF file will appear within this section of the agenda.

You can click the PDF icon to view the Expedite Report. The number that appears in the Number of Expedite Reviews column reflects the number of expedited submissions on the agenda.

Meeting Start and End Times, Meeting Chair

Under this section, add the actual start time, end time, and indicate who chaired the meeting.

Meeting Start Time and Meeting End Time allow you to specify the actual start and end times by entering the hour and minutes and “AM” or “PM.” These two fields are used as merge codes in your Meeting Minutes template.

Meeting Chair allows you to select from a drop down list of board members and staff. This can also be used as a merge code in the Meeting Minutes template.

After entering the meeting time and Chairperson’s details, click on the Save Changes button on the top right of the meeting agenda page.

Submission Assigned to the Meeting

Any submission that is assigned to the meeting date populates at the bottom portion of the meeting agenda page.

Submissions Assigned to Meeting populates on the Meeting Agenda page when they have been assigned to a full board meeting.

Categories and Submissions

The Green Headings are the Agenda Categories used to organize the submissions on the agenda. These categories are customized and are configured in Review Board Administration. For more information on the Agenda Category configurations, see the IACUC Assistant > RB Administration Manual.

A submission that is placed on the meeting displays in a category, based on the configuration described above. The screenshot below details the information available for a submission on the agenda.

During the meeting, each submission can be opened and viewed for specific review information, and the Vote can be captured for the submission in real-time by the board members listed as present at the meeting.

Order – The order of the submissions display in this area. This area is configurable. Enter a whole number and select the Save Changes button. This rearranges the submissions in the order entered but only within the Agenda Category.

Click to Open – Click on the icon in this column to open the Submission Processing screens. The exact screens to which you have access are based on your user account configuration. Typically, if you are a coordinator or administrator, you can process the submission when you open the submission from this area. If you are a board member, you can open the submission to fill out a member checklist and view submission and study details.

Ref Num – This is the submission’s reference number. This is a unique number that is auto-assigned by iRIS.

COI – If a KSP listed on the study for this submission also has a role on the review board committee, an icon populates in this column. Hover your mouse over the icon to display the name of the user with conflicting roles.

Letters – If an Outcome Letter has been created for this submission, an icon populates in this column. The icon changes depending on the status of the letter. Hover your mouse over the icon to see the letter status. If more than one letter has been generated for the submission, each letter is listed when you mouse over the icon.

The following column headings can be selected to order the submissions by that type. An icon is displayed next to the column heading indicating that it is being displayed in ascending or descending order. (See below)

Outcome – If a review outcome is determined for this submission, it displays here.

IACUC Number –If an IACUC Number is assigned to the study, it displays here.

Type –The type of submission form.

Principal Investigator – This column displays the Principal Investigator on the study.

Reviewer(s) – If any reviewers are assigned to the submission, they display here along with their reviewer roles.

Date Board Received – The date that the submission first entered the Review Board’s queue.

Meeting Minutes

The Meeting Minutes link allows you to access published meeting minutes for any past meeting. This is an area where board members can go to pull minutes from a past meeting.

This page displays a link for each board meeting that has been held from newest to oldest. If minutes have been generated and a finalized version has been published, a View Finalized Minutes button next to the meeting link. If a Draft version of the minutes has been published the button will read View Draft Minutes. If the meeting minutes have not been published yet, no button displays. You can click on the View Finalized Minutes or View Draft Minutes button to view the PDF document for that meeting. You can also open to the meeting agenda by clicking the words of the meeting and meeting date.

When you click to view the draft or finalized minutes, they open in a new screen displaying the information entered from the meeting. The fields in the minutes document reflect what was defined in the Meeting Minutes Template. If it is a Draft version of the minutes, a watermark will appear with the word DRAFT across the minutes.

Meeting Availability

Meeting Availability allows a user to indicate their availability for any future board meetings.

If you log into Meeting Availability as a system administrator, each meeting date appears on a single page. Each member of the board displays on the page with three columns to the right of their name. You can set a member’s availability for a certain meeting date by marking a response in any of the three columns.

Will be Present – Select this if the member will be at the meeting.

Will Not be Present – Select this if the member will not be attending the meeting. If this selection is flagged, the user’s name is also flagged in the Member Attendance section of the Meeting Agenda page as “May not be present” (see the screenshot below).

Available for Review – If a member has indicated that he or she will not be available for reviewing assignments, set this from “Yes” to “No.” If this selection is flagged as “No” for a user on a particular meeting date, you are not able to assign them as a reviewer on a submission placed on that meeting date (see the screenshot below).

If you log in to the system with a non-administrative role, you are only allowed to set your availability for upcoming meetings in this page.

Each meeting is listed with the same options: “Will be Present,” “Will Not be Present,” and “Available for Review.” Another column, View Calendar, is also available.

Clicking this icon opens a new page with a calendar view displaying the month of the meeting. Click the Close button when you are finished viewing the calendar.

After setting your availability for a meeting date, be sure to click the Save the Availability button.