Former Outlook MVP Jay Harlow provided this information in a newsgroup posting:
In Microsoft Outlook, making someone an 'Optional' attendee is the same as Cc'ing that person. Making someone an 'Resource' attendee is the same as Bcc'ing that person.
To CC (or BCC) someone to a meeting
To CC someone to a meeting, you can use one of three methods to place the address in the Optional attendee field. (To BCC, use the Resources field and see the Notes, below.)
1. Select the Attendee Availability tab (Outlook 98/2000), Scheduling tab (Outlook 2002/2003), or Scheduling Assistant (Outlook 2007/2010)
Click in the Attendance column, and change the attendance for the person to Optional Attendee. Choose Resource if you want the person BCC'd.
2. On the Scheduling Assistant page, click the Add Attendees button to open the address book dialog and select invitees.
3. You can also click the To button on the Appointment page to open the address book dialog and put the person in the Optional (or Resource) list.
Forward as an iCal
Another method for BCC'ing invitees is to forward the meeting as an iCal. Add the attendees to the message BCC field. When the invitees accept or decline the invitation, the organizer will receive the response.
Notes
The Sender will see the Resource names in the To field of the meeting request, but when they click the To button, the addresses added as Resources will be in the Resources field.
Resources will be listed in the Location field - the sender will need to delete the BCC'd names from the Location field. If the Location field is empty, type in a location, otherwise Outlook will add the Resources back to the Location field.
This screen shot shows what the recipients see. If someone is CC'd, their name or address would be in the Optional field.
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91 Comments on "To Cc or Bcc a Meeting Request"
This didn't work. I did it as a test and choosing 'Resources' and placing recipients into that category did not blind carbon copy the recipients.
What version of Outlook and what email server do you use?
Did you type something in the location field? If you don't enter something in for the location, the BCC entries will be added as the location.
Hi there, as per Tammy' query below, using O2013, we have sent a meeting invite to a list of users - listed as Rsources. However, we are not getting responses.
How do we see the RSVP status in tracking? At this stage, it appears not one person has responded, which we know not to be the case.
If the TNEF data is missing from the response, it won't process (and will stay in the inbox). If you aren't getting any messages back, check your junk folder or spam filter.
If the responses are processed, it will show on the tracking tab - but as long as you get a reply back, you can update the response on the tracking tab. (click on the response field and select from the dropdown.)
Hi there - how do I track RSVP's when I have created a meeting appointment (outlook 2013) + Bcc'd the guests in?
When they reply, the tracking will be on the Tracking page. If the tracking reply can't be processed by outlook, you can update the tracking manually only if the BCC'd recipient is listed on the tracking tab (they should be listed as a resource).
Note that if you use Office 365 exchange, this may not work as the list of invitees may be sent to everyone - test it to see how it works on your tenant. it works 'as expected' using older versions of Exchange or outlook.
I am sending a calendar invite to external email addresses using the BCC option from a Shared Mailbox. External recipients are accepting the invitation, however responses are not being sent back to the shared mailbox, nor are responses being reflected in tracking.
If the responses aren't returned, then tracking will not update automatically. Are the recipients not sending a response or are the responses coming back to your address instead of the shared mailbox?
Hello. As the sheer number of issues in the comments above demonstrate, this method does not work well. I think you should delete this entire page, because it's creating more problems than it's fixing. It's certainly messed up my work.
It works every time I test it. You need to type something in the location field - if you don't the Bcc'd addresses will be added as the location.
I followed these steps to set up a recurring meeting. I want to cancel one occurrence in this meeting series. How would I cancel that occurrence with keeping the email addresses/recipients private?
Cancelling the meeting should keep the named in the Resources/BCC private, otherwise, you'd just need to send an email alerting the people that the meeting was cancelled.
The names are showing up in Resource when I try to use this method. So the invitation shows "Resource" with a list of names. Any suggestions?
Did you delete the names from the resource, leaving only the resource room, if there is one, or typing something in? You don't want that field blank, but if you replace the entries in it, they won't be added back.
Looks like even after doing the above, the names still show up in the scheduling assistant
They'll show up in your copy but not in the recipients side - provided you type something in the location field. do not leave the BCC address in the Location field when you send it.
Hello,
We started using this method to send invitations to webcasts. Most people in the company use Windows computers. It works great for these users, but we have been notified that Mac users cannot see the option to accept the meeting request. Is there something we need to do or add to the meeting invitations so that Mac users can accept these meetings?
I will check, but i don't think so. (It behaves the same way on Outlook 2016 Mac - looks like a bug to me.)