A board meeting schedule serves as a guide to help keep your meetings on the right track and productive. When you want to maximize the time your board members spend together the substance is more important than fashion.
Start with a call to begin and an introduction from the board chair or facilitator to officially start your meeting. After that, you may take note of the minutes from the previous meeting or the financial report. You can also look over committee updates or other administrative tasks. It’s a good idea, next, to set aside a section of the meeting for discussions on strategic planning or other governance matters. It’s also possible to include a sensitive or confidential topic in an executive session, if your organization’s bylaws allow it.
Throughout the meeting, make sure to listen carefully and thoughtfully to each item. You should raise any questions or concerns you may have about the presentation and allow your try this out fellow board members to respond. But be cautious not to get side-tracked and discuss new discussion subjects that don’t belong on the agenda. This can waste precious meeting time and divert attention from the most important issues on your board’s agenda. It is possible to avoid this by adding a “parking area” item at the end of your agenda. This will allow you to postpone various topics off for a later time.
The last thing to do is ensure that you provide your board with an agenda at least a week prior your meeting. This will give everyone ample time to review and prepare for the meeting. It’s also a great idea to include the agenda with any supporting documents that board members need to be able to fully comprehend the subject that is being discussed.