How do I set up office hours?
Creating Office Hours sessions
As an expert for MassChallenge, one of your most valuable resources for our startup community is your time.
We've created a new Office Hours experience with the help of your feedback and recommendations.
First, is an overview of what you will see upon logging in and selecting "office hours" from the navigation items on the left hand side of the screen. You can use the following link to open office hours in a new window or tab, https://accelerate.masschallenge.org/officehours
Having selected "Office Hours" in the left hand navigation you will be directed to a calendar overview of your office hours for the current week.
By clicking on the date, a calendar modal will appear, allowing you to select the specific date from a small calendar view within the same page. If you want to view office hours for any time, clicking on a date within that week will adjust the calendar to that week and dismiss the calendar modal.
Adding an Office Hours session
To add a session to your Office Hours calendar click the blue, "+ Add Sessions" button. A modal will appear that will allow you to add the specifics of the office hours you are creating.
- Date - Clicking this field will allow you to change the date of the office hour
- Time - Allows you to create a single, or series, of 30 minute office hour sessions
- Location - Allows you to select a location where the office hours are taking place, including a remote option. The locations you can offer will depend on what Programs you are a mentor for.
- Remote option - Add a link to your conference software of choice, Zoom, Hangouts etc.
- Visibility - Tells you which Programs you are participating in as a Mentor
- Comment - Add information about yourself and what help you can offer to startups. There is a 2,000 character limit
So creating an office hour, or a series of them will look like this.
1. Confirming the timezone
Your office hours should be automatically displayed in the timezone that is set on your device. If you do not select a different timezone, your office hours will be automatically created in the timezone that is detected.
If you wish to schedule them in a different timezone, simply select the timezone from the drop down menu to the right of the "+ Add Sessions" button.
If you want to see your office hours displayed in a timezone for which you are offering office hours, you may select that timezone from the dropdown menu at any time, and the calendar will display your current office hours as would be seen in the selected timezone.
2. Select the date
Click the "+ Add Sessions" button and a calendar modal will appear that will allow you to schedule a single, or multiple office hour sessions.
Click on the calendar to select a date to create office hour sessions for.
3. Create a single or multiple sessions
Decide how many 30 minute sessions you want to create by changing the time accordingly.
Adjusting the time in the drop down menus next to the clock symbol will change the number of 30 minute sessions you are offering for that day.
You will see the number of office hour sessions displayed in the text below the time drop down menu.
4. Selecting a time
When creating an office hours session you must pick a time that is not in the past and that is not the exact same time (see below).
Doing so will result in an error message with a reminder that the end time of a session must be after the start time.
5. Select your location
The number of locations available in the drop-down is dependent upon how many Programs you are a current mentor / offer office hours for.
Note the "remote" selection for when you are not available to meet in person.
6. Remote meetings, Program participation, Introductory message
If your meeting is remote, you may add a link to your conference software of choice, Zoom, Hangouts etc.
Below that, you will see a list of the Programs that you are currently an active participant in.
You may also add a brief message to the startup to introduce yourself as well as inform them of the areas that you can help them with.
7. Click Save
Once you have clicked the save button the modal will be dismissed and you will see a confirmation message at the bottom of the screen that says how many office hour sessions you created and what date they were created for.
You can dismiss this message by clicking the "close" button.
Office Hours Reservation Notification
When an entrepreneur reserves an office hour that you have created you will receive an email that looks like the example below.
You will see your name, the time, date and timezone of the session and the name of the entrepreneur who reserved it.
If the entrepreneur has added a message, you will see it displayed, along with links to help you create a calendar reminder for yourself.
