Scheduling meetings take huge amounts of time for most organizations, especially when external people are involved (like Board members, volunteers and colleagues). it can take days of back-and-forth emails narrowing down on possible times and dates. There are a few services available now that attempt to simplify and automate scheduling processes by offering attendees choices of different times, automatically selecting the best times for everyone, and synchronizing with Outlook and/or Google calendars.

I haven’t tested any of these yet, but I’ve read favourable mentions in a couple of discussion groups. Most of them are free, or offer free versions. They may charge more for features like synchronization and corporate branding. I’ve excerpted from their web sites below.

Timebridge (www.timebridge.com)

With TimeBridge's one-step scheduling you select attendees, propose meeting times and send a meeting invitation. TimeBridge does the rest— collects everyone's availability and selects the best time. Everyone gets a confirmation once the meeting is set. To make it easy, attendees need only a web browser to respond and no registration is required.

Biz-e (www.biz-e.com)

Full Outlook Calendar Integration
Easy Meeting Choices
Meeting Attendance View
Suggest Meeting Dates
Confirm Finalized Meeting Choices
Respond to Meeting Requests via the Web

TimeToMeet (www.timetomeet.info)

Whether you're meeting with one person or one dozen, this will help find you a time that works for everyone.  How it works:

1. Everyone receives a private link to enter their availabilites on a common schedule. No sign-ups or logins necessary.
2. We'll find the best candidates and you can easily confirm a final time. RSVPs are built-in.
3. And you're done already.

Tungle (www.tungle.com)

Tungle, the first peer-to-peer (P2P) meeting coordinator, solves these [scheduling] problems. Tungle allows professionals to easily coordinate a meeting - no matter if their invitee is in the next cubicle, a business associate in a different city or a good friend on the other side of the world.

Tungle is a P2P meeting coordinator that is downloaded and installed by the end user. Its one-click setup automatically installs the software and integrates with the user's calendaring system.

Tungle provides professionals with a view of the times their friends, co-workers or business associates are free or busy - in advance of sending a meeting invitation - and independent of what time management system they are using.