Most non profit organisations are run by volunteer board members who have many other calls on their time.  They dedicate some of that time to organisations for which they have an interest or a passion.  However, they would usually prefer not to be spending time in meetings that drag on for too long, discussing issues that are not of primary importance or that are not part of their board responsibilities.

To ensure that the board makes the best use of its time and to maintain the enjoyment of board members in the organisation, meetings should flow as smoothly as possible through the essential business.  The major responsibility for this rests with the Chair, with some also resting with the Executive.

Frequency of meetings
Appropriate frequency of meetings will differ for different organisations, but it is worth having the discussion:

• does the board need to meet every month, or is this just habit?

• are monthly meetings necessary to make strategic decisions?

• could meetings be held bi-monthly or quarterly, with reports circulated to members in between meetings?

• can time between meetings be varied according to the needs of the organisation and its seasonal cycle?

The agenda
The agenda is the key tool of meeting management.  It should:

• be agreed by the Chair;

• be circulated, with board papers, at least a week beforehand (to avoid time wasted while they are read at the meeting);

• identify items that are associated with a report, who is making it and what if any papers are cross-referenced to it;

• and remind everyone when and where the meeting is

Other possibilities include:

• avoiding the agenda being too standardised from meeting to meeting;

• structuring it to give priority to key issues that might otherwise be left to the end of the meeting, when board members have run out of energy or time;

• dividing the agenda between policy development / strategic issues and monitoring / reporting routines;

• identifying items that

  • are for information only

  • are for discussion

  • require a decision and subsequent action;

It can also be useful to have an ‘annual agenda’ or ‘board calendar’.  (See Fishel, D. “Book of the Board” 2nd edn, p73)

• the level of detail board members have requested (balancing the board’s desire for information against the staff time taken to provide it);

• the format agreed for reports and background briefing papers;

• decisions as to what should be incorporated in the CEO’s report and what kept separate;

• and decisions as to how and when sub-committee reports are received.

Minutes should be circulated within a few days of a meeting having taken place.

Beware time-costly traps
Boards can be beguiled into spending time on issues that are not germane to their task, such as:

• focusing on board members’ pet interests or topics during meetings

• becoming mired in trivia (e.g. pedantic discussions over forms of words)

• dealing with details that “clear the desk”, but that are not part of the board’s responsibility

• allowing too much time for staff members’ reports

Active debate
The quality of board decisions will often depend on the quality of debate.  Some useful strategies to improving board members’ contributions might be:

• asking lengthy speakers to summarise the main points;

• encouraging quiet members to contribute;

• asking a ‘nay-sayer’ for constructive suggestions;

• requesting a summary from the Chair if the meeting is bogged down

Nothing is more frustrating than spending a year on a board and, at the end of it, sitting down and racking one’s brains to think whether one has had any effect whatsoever.
Sir John Harvey Jones (quoted in Fishel, D. The Book of the Board, p79)

References:
Carver, J. Boards That Make a Difference, 2nd Edition, Jossey-Bass Inc, 1997
Fishel, D. The Book of the Board, 2nd Edition, Federation Press, 2008
Houle, C.O. Governing Boards – Their Nature and Nurture, Jossey-Bass Inc, 1989
McLaughlin, Thomas A. The Strategic Board Agenda, (article) Board Café, 12-23-2002, Compass Point Non-Profit Services

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