>A bit exotic ?
>

LEFT JOIN may yield the best performance, but I'd like Kirk to test all scenarios and tell us.

>>
>>The other way would be a left join with itself and a like condition, e.g.
>>

>>;with cte_ToExclude as (select IDField 
>>from dbo.Meetings (nolock) 
>>where iscancelled=0
>>and roomclosed=0
>>and isblock=0
>>and (scheduledBy like 'TEST%'  
>>OR scheduledBy like 'CQI%'))
>>
>>select min(M.sDateTime) as FirstDate 
>>from dbo.Meetings (nolock) M
>>where M.iscancelled=0
>>and M.roomclosed=0
>>and M.isblock=0 LEFT JOIN cte_ToExclude C on M.IdField = C.IDField where c.IDField IS NULL
>>

>>
>>Or use not exist condition here:

>>select min(M.sDateTime) as FirstDatefrom dbo.Meetings (nolock) M
>>where M.iscancelled=0
>>and M.roomclosed=0
>>and not exists(select 1 from 
>>from dbo.Meetings (nolock)  M2
>>where M2.iscancelled=0
>>and M2.roomclosed=0
>>and M2.isblock=0
>>and M2.scheduledBy like 'TEST%'  and M2.IdField = M1.IDField) and not exists (select 1 from 
>>from dbo.Meetings (nolock)  M3
>>where M3.iscancelled=0
>>and M3.roomclosed=0
>>and M3.isblock=0
>>and M3.scheduledBy like 'CQl%'  and M3.IdField = M1.IDField)