Board Meeting Tips – How to Keep the Discussions Focused and Stick to the Agenda
Board meetings are an essential element of any successful business. Your board of directors will be able make most appropriate decisions for your company with the proper planning and follow-up. The best way to increase your board’s efficiency is to keep the discussions focused and stick to the agenda. This helps ensure that your meeting runs smoothly and that all important topics are discussed thoroughly.
Create and distribute an agenda for the board meeting prior to the meeting. This allows board members to review the materials and come to the meeting prepared to contribute their insights. This also ensures that board members are on the same page as it pertains to what needs be covered and when.
Start at the right time. This can help everyone feel more engaged, enthusiastic and motivated. It can also encourage punctual attendance. It is tempting for committee members to spend all of their time reading reports. This is usually an inefficient decision since the chair of the committee should have already read these reports prior to the meeting.
Set time limits for each topic and keep the discussion focused on the topics on the agenda. This demonstrates respect for your board members’ time commitments and helps to make sure all the essential discussions are discussed during the meeting. Items that are not controversial can be voted through a consent agenda, which allows time for more in-depth discussions of strategic topics during the board meeting.
Keep the minutes as simple as you can. Make use of a template based upon the agenda, which includes things like listing people present, headings for the topics to be discussed, and draft resolution language to support the decisions that are being made. Visual project management software can help you take notes at the same speed as the board discussions, and later organize them to make it easy to distribute them.
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