A nonprofit board meeting must be engaging and informative. This can be achieved by keeping the focus on the organization’s objectives and mission with clear communication. A lot of meetings are dominated by a long-winded presentation of the organization or heated discussions on specific topics by one or two people (we all know who that is). By adding a little something more to the meeting can keep it lively and help board members stay connected to the mission of your organization. A video showing client testimonials can be an effective way to reconnect your board members to your mission.
Check that the agenda for your board meeting is well-planned in advance. If necessary the services of a facilitator for meetings can be hired to assist with this or the board’s committee should take responsibility for preparing the agenda and ensuring that all important documents are prepared and distributed prior to the board meeting. Board members who are scrambling to find important documents as they are discussing them or, worse yet, don’t have them in the first place can ruin the effectiveness of a meeting.
Boards should not spend more than 25 percent of their meeting time on updates hiring board members remotely and “have to’s”. A lot of time is wasted by board members who are lost in the details of committee chair reports, officer reports and other routine items. A lot of these items can be reduced to 5-10 minutes and easily included in a packet for meetings or regular emailed updates to the board.