Board meetings are when an important group of stakeholders — often employees, investors, and members of the community have a shared responsibility for the organization. This includes determining the direction of an organization as well as making decisions. To achieve these objectives, the board needs to be active and informed. Board meetings are a crucial element of a company’s organizational governance structure.
Board members are chosen by shareholders to represent their interests, and they take decisions by consensus. They must be well-informed to make sound decisions. But they also have to communicate clearly to each other and to the other members of the group. To accomplish this, effective board meetings rely on best practices to increase participation, efficiency, and decision-making.
It is essential to establish clear roles and responsibilities prior to the board meeting so as everyone in attendance to know their roles during the meeting. This includes familiarizing yourself with the expertise, interests, and expectations of each member of the board so that you can customize your meeting agenda to their needs.
Making sure that everyone is at ease speaking their mind and challenging the dominant views in a respectful manner is a key element to encourage participation. This can be accomplished by different facilitation techniques, including round-robin discussion or small group breakout sessions.
A majority of board meetings have the opportunity for public comments where any person can speak to the board. This allows parents who have concerns that the school isn’t able or unwilling to resolve and other members of the community, to get their voices heard. The time allocated to each speaker can vary from one meeting to the next, but typically each speaker is given a couple of minutes.
