Planning a Board Meeting

It can be a daunting task to plan an executive board meeting. You must set an agenda clearly, distribute all materials well ahead of time, and ensure that everyone is present at the meeting. The focus of the meeting is vital but that doesn’t mean you can’t make it enjoyable. The best method to encourage high participation is to draw on the expertise your board members possess.

The sending of a note that outlines the attendance expectations is also an excellent idea to send out before the board meeting. This will help to prevent the last minute cancellations, and also ensure that all participants have the information they require to be productive at the meeting.

Reviewing the minutes of previous board meetings is an additional element of preparing. This will help the board to understand what was discussed in prior meetings, and allow them to shape their discussion topics in line with this.

The most frequent board meeting topic is an assessment of the company’s performance since the last board meeting. This can include discussing sales figures as well as marketing traffic and other pertinent metrics. It’s important to highlight any milestones and successes, but also look for areas for improvement such as missed goals or growing expenses.

It’s also worth focusing on compliance and legal issues that include ensuring compliance to laws and ethical standards. It is in this area that the designated record keeper is a great characteristics of an effective board of directors asset. They can record decisions and discussions to benefit future meetings.