The board room is where your organization’s most important decisions are made. Effective board meetings are crucial to the success of your business regardless of whether they are the catalyst for a new innovative strategic approach or stop you from making a costly mistake. The manner of a boardroom is crucial as is a solid understanding of parliamentary procedure and the ability of facilitating productive discussions.
A well-planned agenda is a key element of an effective board meeting. It establishes the objectives of the meeting and defines the key topics to be discussed and guides the discussion flow. It also enables the board to cover all of the important issues within the designated meeting time and significantly improves the overall management of a business.
To start off the meeting, the presidency officer calls the meeting to order at the scheduled start time. Then, he starts to call the roll to ensure that the quorum of board members is present. After all attendees have been accounted for the agenda and any previous minutes are approved. The board then examines any unresolved old business and reviews any additional issues that have been added to the agenda for this particular meeting. After these issues have been addressed, the board is able to adjourn the meeting.
To ensure an efficient boardroom, it’s best running a board meeting to limit the amount of time spent on reports and “have-to” items. This lets the board spend more time during the meeting to discussing strategic direction as well as other important subjects. The board can also limit the amount of reports they present by asking committee chairs and officers to share only the most important information in a brief and brief report prior to the meeting.