Application Discussion Status
The Application Discussion Status screen is where review staff control the status of the meeting itself and set the discussion statuses for each individual application throughout the meeting.
The top of the screen contains the Go To: drop-down navigation menu and the meeting identifier. 
(click to view)
NOTE: The RTMS link only appears in the Go To: drop-down menu if the RTMS Control Center option is set to "On".
Meeting Information
Below the navigation bar a section titled “Meeting” exists. This section contains the 'Meeting Title,' 'Meeting Identifier,' 'Current Phase', 'Meeting Date' and 'Critique Date.'
Controlling the Meeting Status
In the Meeting Details section are the buttons that are used to set the meeting status display. click to view)
- Begin: This button is used to begin the meeting in RTMS. It appears as active as of the meeting start date when the meeting has a status of “Not Started”. Before this button is selected, all other control buttons and all discussion status buttons are disabled. Clicking the Begin button; disables the button; activates the Finish Meeting and Sweep Pending to ND control buttons; set the Meeting Status as “In Progress”; and set each application’s discussion status to “Pending”. click to see before and after view)
- Finish Meeting: This button is used to mark a meeting as "Ended" in RTMS. Clicking this button will run a validation to check if any applications in the meeting are still in a status of “Pending” or “In Progress.”
- If this validation fails, the following error message displays:
- “There are applications in this meeting that are marked as In Progress or Pending. Please sweep these applications to a status of ND or mark them as complete.” click to view)
- “There are applications in this meeting that are marked as In Progress or Pending. Please sweep these applications to a status of ND or mark them as complete.”
- If the validation passes, a pop up containing the following confirmation message displays:
- “You are requesting to end the Real Time meeting session. Are you sure you would like to proceed? If yes, click Continue; otherwise, click Cancel to return to your meeting. click to view)
NOTE: Once the meeting has ended, you will not be able to restart it.”
- Selecting “Continue” will mark the meeting as "Ended" and disable all buttons on the screen.
- If this validation fails, the following error message displays:
- Sweep Pending to ND: This button is used to sweep all applications currently in a Pending status, on the current page, to Not Discussed. This action must be performed prior to finishing the meeting if there are applications still in a Pending status. If this button is clicked and there are no pending applications in the meeting, an error message displays. click to view)
NOTE: If "All" is selected and then "Sweep to ND" is selected, the subsequent actions will only apply to all of the applications on the current page and not to other pages not visible.
- Change Order button will be displayed if an order has been set. Clicking on this button will open the Change Order of Applications screen which will enable drag-and-drop rearrangement of the order of the applications in the meeting. Click on the Back to Discussion Status link under the Information section when done. click to view this screen)
- Meeting Phone Number Use this field to enter the call-in number for meetings.
- Hold: The SRO may choose to place the meeting on hold at any time during the meeting. Utilizing the Hold function will alert Program Officials monitoring the meeting via RTMS that the meeting is currently on hold and will display the anticipated time of return as entered by the SRO.
- To place the meeting on hold, a valid date and time must be entered on the screen using the boxes provided.
- The “Hold Meeting Until:” box must contain a date entered in “MM/DD/YYYY” format. A calendar icon appears and may be clicked on to select a date.
- The “Time:” box must contain a time of day in the format “HH:MM AM/PM”
- If either the time or date are entered in an unacceptable format, an error message reading “The meeting hold time or date is invalid or is not in correct format. Date format should be MM/DD/YYYY and time format should be HH:MM AM/PM" will display upon clicking the “Hold” button (Please include a space between time and AM or PM). click to view)
- Once the meeting has been placed on hold, the text of the hold button will change to “Resume” and all other buttons on the screen will become disabled. click to view)
- Selecting Resume will change the text of the button back to “Hold” and all other buttons on the screen will become active.
NOTE: If the set meeting hold date/time elapses, the meeting will not resume automatically. The meeting must be manually resumed on this screen.
Announcements:
Below the meeting control buttons, a menu titled “Announcements” appears on the screen. Review Staff may choose to post announcements periodically throughout the meeting to keep Program Officials monitoring the meeting informed of any review order changes, breaks, or other pertinent information.
The Announcements menu is collapsed by default and its header contains the number of unread and total announcements that have been posted for the meeting. The menu is expanded by clicking the header. click to view)
When expanded, the announcements section will display a text box at the top of the menu. This text box is limited to 1,000 characters (for RTMS meetings, 10,000 for VM meetings) and is only visible to review staff. Typing and submitting an announcement will alert POs monitoring the meeting that a new announcement has been posted by automatically refreshing the unread and total announcement counts for the meeting. Additionally, if an announcement is submitted by another user, it will appear on this screen as new the next time the screen is accessed (example: if an ESA submits an announcement, the SRO will see this announcement appear as new on their screen, and vice versa).
Below the announcement text box, the list of posted announcements displays.
The announcements on this screen are sorted in reverse chronological order, with the newest announcements on the top of the list. Each entry contains the text of the announcement, the name of the user who posted the announcement, and the date and time it was posted. click to view)
When an announcement is new or newly edited and is considered unread, the blue badge in the announcement section will indicate the number of new announcements and the gray badge will indicate the number of total announcements. . click to view)
Expanding the Announcements menu designates any new announcements present as read.
Hovering over the announcement presents the "Edit" icon. The message reverts to an editable text box to allow the announcement to be amended when the icon is clicked.
List of Applications:
Beneath the Announcements menu, a table containing the list of all applications included in the meeting is displayed. click to view)
The columns in this table are:
- Order – Displays the Discussion Order or Review Order if existing. If neither a Discussion Order nor Review Order exist, this column appears blank
- Cluster – Displays the cluster assignment for the application if clusters are being in this meeting. If clusters do not exist, this column appears blank
- Grant Number – Displays the full grant number of the application
- PI Name – Displays the name of the PI in the format of Last name, First name
- Project Title – Displays the application title
- Status – Displays the current discussion status of each application.
- Time Discussion Started - Displays the date and time stamp of when the application was marked as “In Progress”
Setting the Discussion Status:
Throughout the meeting, the Review Staff will use the radio buttons located in the “Status” column of the list of applications to indicate the discussion status of each application. The changes in the discussion statuses are saved automatically each time a button is selected. click to view)
The buttons in this column are:
- P – Pending (gray)
- IP – In Progress (green)
- C – Completed (blue)
- ND – Not Discussed (gray)
When an application’s “IP” (In Progress) radio button is selected, the “Time Discussion Started” column will auto-populate with the date and time that the button was selected. This information will display to Program Officials using RTMS. click for IAR and RTMS views)
If an application is moved back to a status of Pending, the discussion start date and time will be removed.
NOTE: Only one application can be marked as IP at a time. If the IP radio button is clicked for a second application, the following error message displays:
"Application (application #, PI last name) us still marked as 'In Progress. Please mark it as 'Completed' or 'Not Discussed' before designating (application 3, PI last name) as 'In Progress.'click to view)
When the discussion of an application has concluded, it must be given a conclusive status of “C” (Completed) or “ND” (Not Discussed).
IMPORTANT: Understand that when 'Sweeping Pending to ND,' it is the status of the discussion of the application that is swept and not the final score. We recommend that the discussion status of applications be swept to 'Not Discussed' at the end of the meeting. Taking this action at the beginning of the meeting sends notifications to program officials that the applications are done, creating confusion.
