Where everything lives
Open Bookings and click the booking. That page is the home for the engagement: the messages, the session times, the video call button, and the buttons for finishing up.Joining the video call
When it is time, open the booking and use Join on the session. It opens the video room in your browser — nothing to install, and no account with any video service.The room has opening hours. It unlocks 30 minutes before the scheduled start and closes 4 hours after it. Before that you will be told it is not open yet; afterwards, that the session’s window has passed. The room is private to one session, not a standing meeting link.
- Use Chrome, Edge, Safari or Firefox, kept reasonably up to date
- Allow the browser to use your camera and microphone when it asks
- There is a check screen before you enter, so you can see and hear yourself first
- Join a couple of minutes early
- A wired or strong Wi-Fi connection beats mobile data, and headphones remove most echo problems
Session length
A session runs for the length of the slot your advisor published — 30, 60 or 90 minutes. The single-session package is a 60-minute session.Messaging your advisor
Every booking has its own private message thread. Use it to send context ahead of time, ask a short follow-up, or say you need to reschedule. There is a bell in the top bar with a count on it, and a badge on any booking with something waiting. Both count only messages the other person sent since you last opened that thread.The Whetstone team can read a thread when handling a problem on that booking, and every time they do it is logged. They can also post in it — always labelled as coming from Whetstone rather than as your advisor, and always to both of you at once.
Reminders
You are emailed 24 hours and 1 hour before each session. Each goes out once. Book at short notice and you will just get the one-hour reminder.How to prepare
- Send the background in the message thread beforehand rather than spending the first fifteen minutes on it
- Have your three or four real questions written down
- Say early what you want to walk away with
- Take notes, or ask your advisor to summarise the actions in the thread afterwards