Tips to Conduct an Effective Board Meeting

Bob Reynolds, CPA

In my 30 years as a professional and board member for several nonprofit organizations, I have spent countless hours in meetings. It’s safe to say that while many were productive, many were not. A nonprofit’s board members are a vital resource and are responsible for establishing strategies to guide an organization to fulfill its mission. As such, it is critical for an organization to utilize the skills, knowledge, and experience of its volunteer leaders effectively.

Timeliness Matters

Board members are busy people, and it’s important not to waste their time. How often have you attended a board meeting where the first action item is to delay starting the meeting to wait for members who did not show up on time? While this may seem courteous, it can send a message to those who arrived on time that their time isn’t as valuable as their tardy colleagues.

Board members failing to arrive on time for the meeting can result in the lack of a quorum to address items requiring board approval, creating a “last-minute” need to rearrange the meeting agenda to delay taking action or, worse yet, tabling items to a later date. Perhaps even worse, is pausing to “catch up” those arriving late on the discussion and board actions that have already been addressed.

Be Prepared, Plan Ahead

Poor preparation for a board meeting can create frustration for board members. Supplying the meeting agenda and other board materials the day before, or worse yet the day of the meeting does not provide an opportunity for board members to gain an understanding of actions to be taken or desired outcome of the meeting. Further, when board members receive materials for an upcoming meeting, they need to review them. Personal accountability matters! I cannot count the number of times I have been in a board meeting when the minutes of the previous meeting were presented for approval and witnessed board members attempting to read them before the vote is called.

An Effective Board Meeting Focuses on Strategy Instead of Operations

Board meetings should be strategic, not focused on operations. The key is developing a meeting agenda that is strategic. Too often the majority of the time the board spends together is devoted to presenting and reviewing reports. Use of a consent agenda should provide routine materials like minutes, financial statements, and recurring approvals in a single action item. There should be a process for asking questions and making corrections in advance of the meeting. Likewise, staff and committee reports should be provided in advance and meeting time devoted only to discussion where a committee needs board input or approval. A tip for executive directors, in your report focus on “what” has been or needs to be done, and not on “how” it was done.

Effective board meetings are important to the execution of strategy, the utilization and safeguarding of resources, and monitoring performance to achieve an organization’s mission.

Here are 13 tips on how to conduct an effective board meeting:

1. Recruit / Appoint a good Board Chair. More next month on the attributes of a good Chairperson.
2. Prepare and distribute the meeting agenda in advance. Ideally a week before the meeting.
3. Make sure the agenda is mission focused. Focus on strategy not operations.
4. Make certain the meeting is about actions not staff and committee reports.
5. Assign times to agenda items. This will help make sure everything gets covered.
6. Distribute ALL board materials in advance. Ideally a week before the meeting.
7. Start the meeting on time.
8. Open the meeting with your “mission statement” and share a “mission moment.”
9. Follow “Robert’s Rules of Order.”
10. Summarize action items before ending the meeting.
11. Take minutes. Summarize actions taken and to be taken. Do not write a transcript.
12. End the meeting on time.
13. Distribute the meeting minutes (including action items) within 48 hours.

A final word to board members. Yours is an important role to the success of the organization you serve. A board members’ legal responsibilities: Duty of Care, Duty of Loyalty, Duty of Obedience, rely on board members to be prepared and engaged, monitor organization performance, ask questions, and act.

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