5 Ways to Improve Your Board Meetings
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.
5 More Tips for Running Efficient Board Meetings
The best board meetings engage board members, allowing for robust discussion and decisive action.
In a recent blog post, I shared five tips for improving your board meetings. Here are five more ways to make meetings efficient and effective.
1. Write an anticipated action for each agenda item.
This helps board members know what is expected for each agenda item so they can be better engaged and prepared. For example, “Investment Committee Report – Q & A, no action needed” or “Governance Committee Report – approve new committee charters.”
2. Include at least one of the most important issues facing the organization on the agenda.
What major issues is your organization facing? (e.g., economic downturn, funding, demographic changes, competitors?) Be sure to structure your agenda to include time to discuss one of these issues at each meeting.
3. Develop a culture of respectful dissent and authentic disagreements.
Find opportunities to promote this culture at each meeting by recognizing those board members who provide a different view. For example: “Roger, I appreciate that you disagreed with my opinion in the last discussion. Your perspective made the discussion much more valuable.”
4. Begin on time and finish on time.
Board members are busy people and you want to respect everyone’s time. Set the standard that the meetings start on time. If you are running late with the agenda, you can ask if everyone is able to stay an extra 15 minutes. If everyone agrees then extend; if not, move the most critical agenda items up on the agenda to be sure they are covered.
5. Encourage everyone to contribute at each meeting.
This is the responsibility of the board chair, but all board members can help. If someone is being quiet, you might ask a question, such as “Melissa, we haven’t heard form you on this issue, do you have anything to add to the discussion?” or “Steve, you made some great points at our last meeting about the strategic plan. Is there anything we are overlooking from a strategic standpoint in this discussion?
I know that these five tips – along with the first five – will help you improve your board meetings.
Do you have other tips for running efficient, effective board meetings? Share your thoughts in the comments!