A productive meeting can’t be achieved without a well-designed agenda. The agenda for the board meeting sets the tone and ensures the board is able to achieve its goals.
If you’re a board member or an administrator, it’s essential to know the best practices in agenda planning to have a successful board meeting. This article will help you avoid the most common mistakes that can hamper the efficiency of a board meeting.
Talking about Too Many Discussions on Too Many
In attempting to cover too many issues in one meeting results in rapid discussions, a short time for each item and a decrease in the effectiveness of the meeting. To avoid this, prioritise the most important topics that are relevant to your meeting’s objectives. If necessary, you could delay or assign less urgent issues to a subsequent meeting or an appropriate committee to investigate further.
Insufficient Board Participation
By not considering the opinions of board members, it becomes difficult to come to well-rounded decisions. A good agenda encourages participation by identifying the participants in each discussion, and allowing equal time for discussion to prevent one person from dominating a discussion.
Insufficient documentation
It is not uncommon for board members to show up at a board meeting unprepared if there aren’t clear guidelines on how to prepare. A board agenda should include all relevant documents, such as previous minutes of meetings reports, proposals, and minutes, and arrange them in chronological order to support productive discussion. The documents should be provided in advance to board members, and then made available on their board portal to examine prior to the meeting.
