The agenda for board meetings sets the tone and format of your board meetings. A well-planned agenda can help you avoid common mistakes that can derail productivity and cause poor decisions.
The first item on a board meeting’s agenda should be “Call to Order and Time”. The chairperson will call the board to bring the meeting to order and introduce new members, or make other opening remarks. This is also the time to discuss any changes to the agenda as well as to approve previous minutes.
Each item on the agenda of a board meeting must include a brief description of what is expected during discussion, and a summary of any supporting information. By providing this information ahead of time, you can save time during the meeting and ensures that all attendees have access to essential background information. This helps keep the discussion focused and productive.
Prioritize your agenda items for the board according to their importance and urgency, as well as aligning with your strategy goals. This will allow you to avoid the time and energy of meetings wasted on irrelevant or low-impact items. If you have too many agenda items to discuss in one meeting, think about having follow-up meetings or assigning them to specialized committees to allow for more detailed exploration.
Last but not least, make sure you assign a realistic timeframe to each item on the agenda. This prevents discussions from running over the course of the meeting and allows you to close the meeting on time. It is important to remember that these timeframes are just guidelines, and that it’s perfectly acceptable to change them if necessary during the meeting. For instance, if know your board has a tendency to ask a lot of questions about one particular area, you may prefer to give it a bit more time the next time.