Forum Discussion
How to Assign the Co-Organizer Role to Microsoft Teams Meetings
Microsoft Teams is introducing a new co-organizer role for meetings. The role allows people to share the workload involved in managing complex meetings, like webinars. The role is optional and likely to be used in a small minority of Teams meetings. Even so, it’s a useful feature to have available when you’re planning a large and complex meeting.
https://office365itpros.com/2021/11/22/assign-co-organizer-role-microsoft-teams-meetings/
Rae_Jay Hello, these are the details of the co-org role.
Co-organizers can do the following:
- Access and change meeting options
- Bypass the lobby
- Admit people from the lobby during a meeting
- Lock the meeting
- Present content
- Change another participant’s meeting role
- End the meeting for all
- Create & manage breakout rooms
To make co-organizers breakout room managers, you must first assign them the breakout room manager role.
Co-organizers cannot do the following:
Create & manage breakout rooms(updated, see above)- View & download attendance reports
- Manage the meeting recording
- Edit the meeting invitation
- Remove or change the Organizer role
- Unfortunately this role will not be able to do the things that we desperately need a co-organizer to do.....
They won't be able to:
Create and manage breakout rooms.
View and download attendance reports.
Edit the meeting invitation.Rae_Jay Hello, these are the details of the co-org role.
Co-organizers can do the following:
- Access and change meeting options
- Bypass the lobby
- Admit people from the lobby during a meeting
- Lock the meeting
- Present content
- Change another participant’s meeting role
- End the meeting for all
- Create & manage breakout rooms
To make co-organizers breakout room managers, you must first assign them the breakout room manager role.
Co-organizers cannot do the following:
Create & manage breakout rooms(updated, see above)- View & download attendance reports
- Manage the meeting recording
- Edit the meeting invitation
- Remove or change the Organizer role
- I appreciate this feature is rolling out, but what is the point of a co-organizer if they cannot modify/change/delete the meetings? I have multiple managers that "own" teams / channels. If one of them sets up a recurring meeting, and then is not available for the meeting, no one else is able to change / cancel the meeting if needed. A Co-Organizer should have the ability to do just that....otherwise I don't see the real value add. Today anyone can present. Anyone can admit people from the lobby.... (shrug)
I cannot for the life of me understand how you assign co-owners to Teams, but then not to meetings setup within them. Do people at Microsoft not get sick or go on annual leave? Currently ( I imagine like many), when I am on leave, I have to still manage a meeting, send out the attendance report and transcript to colleagues afterwards. This is an ill thought out process that doesn't allow for business continuity planning.
- Who can edit the meeting options to assign a Co-Organizer? I asume only the account that created the meeting? And with a teams/office license assigned to the account?
Let me elaborate with a common (i think) scenario.
Multiple management assistants with Office licenses were used to creating meetings for management through a shared mailbox ("planning assistant"). This Shared mailbox however consists of a disabled account without an office license.
Now these meetings have to change to teams meetings. That works fine but options can only be changed by this shared mailbox account (organizer) so options cannot be changed.
The only solution is to assign a Teams/office license but still when I want to open the options the context in which you logon needs to be this shared mailbox account.
Does this sound familiar? and is there a real solution for it? thanks in advancePaul_van_Rijn An online meeting has to have an owner. The owner could be the assistant who schedules the meeting on behalf of another person, who can then become a co-organizer. However, the organizer still owns the meeting and they can't transfer that responsibility to someone else. It's a different way of working - Teams is not Outlook and Outlook is not Teams.
TonyRedmond It's not a problem that a meeting needs to have one owner. It's a problem that we can't assign permissions that are equal to the owner role to someone else. The owner can work part time, the owner can get sick or temporary unavailable. All valid scenario's for which you want to have a proper backup organizer.
I've been thinking about workarounds for the issue where co-organizers can't update the details of a meeting. Here's what I have come up with. All suggestions or other ideas are welcome!
Working Around the Teams Meeting Co-Organizer Role Limitations
The Teams meeting co-organizer role helps to run smooth meetings, but co-organizers can’t do everything an organizer can. How to get around the limitations? Well, one way is to use an old technique to schedule important meetings using a special account. There might be others, but that’s the one described here.
https://office365itpros.com/2022/02/28/teams-meeting-co-organizer/
- Hi Tony - that article is an excellent summary of the current situation. The workaround sounds like a possibility although significant admin to it but for some organisations sounds like something to consider! The Teams / Outlook issue you mentioned is one I hadn't considered - makes sense. Thanks for sharing your article.
TonyRedmond Not sure I follow what you're saying about that quote from the PM as it says meeting options and not meeting details, but perhaps I'm missing something here.
"Yes, Co-organizers will be able to access and modify meeting options before, during, or even after the meeting -- just like the Organizer can."
- Given the reference in the context of a discussion about co-organizers not being able to change meeting times or amend the invitation, the inference was clear. However, as Microsoft has not said anything publicly on this topic, the actual meaning is uncertain. It's just like interpreting the text of some message center notifications (clear as mud).
- Has this feature been released yet? I do not see it in my meeting options.
- How come the options "choose my co-organizer" doesnt exist in my teams? is it only applicable for specific region?
rcdp_ The feature has not yet launched in General Availability. It's listed on the Microsoft Roadmap (Feature ID 81391) as "In development." That's why you don't see it yet.
- no, that because
"We expect this feature to begin rolling out in mid-May (previously mid-March) and expect the rollout to be complete by late May (previously late March)"
Hello, I was investigating a co-organizer role option for MS Teams meetings and came across this article.
However, it's disappointing that co-organizers don't have the ability to change the calendar date/time. Is this a feature that could be implemented in the future?
Thanks,
Laura
We've been able to have people other than the organizer edit the meeting itself (canceling, changing dates/times, etc.) by accessing the GROUP calendar via Outlook and editing the meeting from the GROUP that is linked to the TEAM. You have to be an owner in the Team to do this but it's a great way to cover people who are sick or change job roles. it's not a perfect solution but the workaround has helped us quite a bit.
- This is a much-requested feature. Thanks for posting.
- That option is not available for me. How I can activate it?
- As per the text of the blog post, the roll-out to all tenants should complete at the end of March.
TonyRedmond, are you aware of any option for a delegate to control meeting options for someone they're scheduling meetings for? I was hoping co-organizer would do it, but it leaves the delegate in a catch-22 where they can schedule the meeting, but can't access meeting options to add themselves as a co-organizer.
Specifically, I'm thinking in the situation where an administrative assistant is a delegate for a manager. The AA can schedule meetings on behalf of the manager, but the manager is the organizer of the meeting as far as M365 is concerned. So for the AA to be able to manage the meeting options as a co-organizer, the manager would have to go into meeting options and set the AA as a co-organizer.
Or am I missing something? Exchange isn't my strong suit so there very well could be a good solution out there. I'm just surprised I couldn't find anything online given I'd think this would be a common setup, especially in large organizations.
The GA for this option was moved from March '22 to May '22. As May is almost over, does anyone know when this will become available for everyone? It's a much needed option!
AshleyVanDM An updated rollout timeline was announced in a post (MC292796) in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center's Message Center, yesterday, May 26th. The date hasn't been updated in the Microsoft Roadmap item (81391) yet, which isn't surprising since Microsoft is horrible about keeping information consistent and up to date in the Roadmap.
From the Message Center post:"When this will happen: We expect this feature to begin rolling out in late May (previously mid-May) and expect the rollout to be complete by mid-June (previously late May)."
- Yesterday, the Microsoft Roadmap showed a status change for this item from "In Development" to "Rolling Out." I'm now seeing the option in Public Preview in my tenant.
