How to Have Effective Board Meetings
description buildingbettertrustboards.org
Nonprofit directors are able to discuss a range of topics at board meetings. These topics can range from assessing the performance an organization to discussing the future strategies. Nonprofits rely on board members who have different backgrounds and experiences in order to steer them towards success.
For a successful meeting of the board, it is important that everyone be prepared and have read all relevant documents before hand. Ideally, the agenda should be created with the help of a team and shared ahead of time to ensure participants can read the documents and prepare for discussions. It is important that the agenda includes enough information to allow participants to to participate effectively.
Establishing clear decision-making criteria and communicating them to all members helps the board align discussions to a common goal. This can help avoid divergent discussions that eat up the time of meetings and stops the board from reaching an agreement or deciding on important issues. Technology tools that allow real-time collaboration make it much easier for board members to communicate with one members and share documents regardless of whether they are geographically dispersed.
The right mix of board members can create an environment that is more productive and help to energize meetings. It is crucial to select a mixture of optimism with pessimism and age with youth and experience with new ideas. Changes in the location of the meeting and/or the time of day also aid in energizing the discussion. This is because it will change the atmosphere and break the monotony of their routines. Additionally, evaluating the quality of meetings at least once per year is vital to make improvements. To do so, give each board member two sticky notes and ask them to evaluate their overall satisfaction the meetings on a scale from + (what is working well) to -(what requires improvement).
