A board meeting schedule serves as a guide to help keep your meetings on the right track and productive. It is essential to choose substance over style when it comes down to maximizing the time that your board members have to work together.

Start with a call to start the meeting and a welcome from the facilitator or the chair of the board to officially open your meeting. After that, you may decide to approve the minutes of the previous meeting or the financial report. You could also review committee updates or other administrative tasks. Then, it’s usually best to set aside a section for discussions on strategic planning or other governance issues. You may also want to include a sensitive or confidential www.boardroomsonline.blog/how-to-make-a-board-meeting-schedule subject in the executive session, if your organization’s bylaws permit it.

Take your time and listen carefully at every point. You should raise any questions or concerns you may have about the presentation and let your fellow board members respond. But be cautious not to get distracted and talk about new subjects that don’t belong on the agenda. This could eat up valuable meeting time and divert attention away from the most important issues on your board’s agenda. To prevent this from happening it is possible to add a “parking lot” item at the end of the agenda, to promote various topics that require attention later on.

Last but not least, ensure that you inform your board of the agenda at least one week before your scheduled meeting. This will allow everyone plenty of time to review and plan for the meeting. It’s also a good idea to include the agenda with any supporting documents that board members need to be able to fully comprehend the topic that is being discussed.