Every month, your board of directors should hold a meeting to discuss the progress being made towards achieving organizational goals. Having an efficient meeting is crucial because it allows you to update the board on what’s happening with your organization, seek feedback on important decisions and bring up a new business that needs resolving or discussion.
It can be difficult to run an effective meeting though, especially if you’re new to the role or this is your first time as a board member. The following six tips will help you run a more effective meeting, so you can keep moving your organization forward.
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1) Find a venue with enough space
When it comes to hosting a meeting, choosing where to have it is only half the battle. You also need to find a venue that is large enough to fit everyone attending. If your board of directors has too many members it can be difficult to find a venue big enough for all of them, but this isn’t an excuse not to have regular meetings. Instead, try hosting smaller meetings on a bi-weekly or monthly basis and have the other meetings at a different time. This way, everyone can still attend and get the board work done.
2) Plan to have a debate
Board meetings are typically for getting your members together and having a group discussion about important issues or proposals. Try not to plan on going through every submission that was received in advance of the meeting because you’ll have too much ground to cover. Instead, schedule an agenda for the meeting and plan for it to be a debate where members can discuss proposals or ask questions. You’ll need someone in charge of moderating these discussions though because otherwise, they might get out of hand.
3) Include subcommittees if needed
If your board is dealing with a lot of submissions or a particularly complicated proposal, they may not be able to come to a consensus in the allotted time. In this situation, each subcommittee should have an officer who can make a recommendation on how they feel about the issue and what steps they believe your organization should take going forward. Have all permissions sent back up to the board for final approval and move on to the next item.
4) Follow a schedule and end at a reasonable time
Keep your meeting running smoothly by keeping track of the allotted time for each agenda item and sticking to it. Some members may take more or less time than you expected, but that doesn’t mean they get more or less time in the future. You can’t go back and add time to items that ran out of time, so make sure you leave yourself enough wiggle room for any unexpected issues.
5) Utilize technology to streamline processes
Nowadays there are many different ways you can utilize technology to improve your board meeting. For example, you can utilize online voting to get a quick consensus among members and reduce the amount of time everyone needs to spend together in one room. You can also try starting up a shared online chat tool so board officers or subcommittee chairs can discuss issues with each other when necessary.
6) Have a company secretary to take minutes
It’s important to have a cheap company secretary in Singapore take detailed notes during the meeting so you have a reference point for what happened later on. This can be difficult with large numbers of people attending a board meeting, but it’s worth having a cheap company secretary in Singapore do this as opposed to trying to go through every detail yourself. Just make sure they know not to include any personal comments in the minutes so you have an accurate record of what was said.
Wrapping up
Running a board meeting is difficult and time-consuming, but it’s also incredibly important for your organization to keep moving forward. Try implementing these six tips in order to make your next board meeting go as smoothly as possible.
