The most important contributions your board members make to your nonprofit will be at the board meetings.
The best board meetings engage the board members and allow for robust discussion and decisions on strategic issues. To improve your meetings, consider implementing these five best practices:
1. Use name tent cards for everyone at every meeting.
You may think everyone knows everyone’s name, but they don’t, or they forget..….so make it easy! The tent cards can also be used to “assign” seating, so board members have the opportunity to sit next to different people at each meeting.
2. Develop an acronym chart.
Make a chart of frequently used acronyms and include it in the board package for each meeting and/or make a poster of the most frequently used acronyms and have it displayed at all board meetings.
3. Use a consent agenda.
Place committee reports/minutes that usually don’t require further discussion on the agenda for consent approval. These minutes/reports will be in the board packet for review by the board members. The board members will still have the opportunity to ask questions, if any, and the board will have more time for items that need discussion.
4. Reduce one-way communication from staff.
Be sure that all staff reports to the board need a response from the board at the meeting. If not, the written report should be in the board package for review and board members can ask questions, if they have any.
5. Conduct board meeting evaluations.
At least once a year, ask your board members to provide feedback on your board meetings. This can be in electronic format or a simple one page grid with 10 or fewer questions. You might want to obtain feedback on topics such as: quality of board packages, effective use of meeting time, clear agenda, board participation in discussion, and focusing on most important topics.
This post originally appeared in the Nonprofit Village newsletter.