It has been said that meetings are events at which minutes are taken and hours are wasted. Yet for those who serve on non-profit boards, meetings are where and how they carry out their governance responsibiities, so it is imperative to have well-run meetings which facilitate reasoned and effective decision making .

Does your board suffer from any of these symptoms of board meeting problems?

• lack of a quorum
• meetings start later and later
• no agenda exists, or the agenda is not distributed in advance
• few members speak
• members are hesitant to vote in opposition to the majority thinking
• individuals resign before their board term expires
• there is lack of clarity about who is going to do what based on decisions made
• majority of decisions are made by the executive committee
• actions taken get rehashed and revisited
• meetings seem to go on and on

If so, it is time to make some changes. A good starting point is a brief board survey asking board members to identify your organization's top three priorities based on your mission, vision and strategic plan. 
Are the top three priorities of the board the same as they are for the organization? 
How much time does the board spend on the above priorities at your board meetings? 
How much time at board meetings is spent talking about things that have already happened? 
In thinking about recent board meetings were there agenda items which could have been better handled by a committee or the executive director or senior staff?
Results of this survey should give you a starting point for actions you might take to ensure that the board spends more time on priority matters.

There are a number of tools to keep meetings focused.  I am going to talk about the most important tool - the agenda - and how this really is the blueprint for success of any meeting.

AGENDAS are necessary for effective meetings and every board member should be able to have input in terms of what goes on the agenda.  Every board member should also be expected to review the agenda and all supporting materials in advance of the meeting.   

Many boards have adopted a consent agenda format where routine items and resolutions are grouped together and voted on with one vote.  These should be issues that do not need any discussion before a vote.  Often included in a consent agenda would be approval of committee or previous board meeting minutes, minor changes in a procedure, or routine revisions of a policy.   Any board member may request that an item be removed from the consent agenda and discussed individually.  What I have observed with boards using a consent agenda is that initially members want to remove items from the consent agenda and discuss them.  As the boards learns to work in a more focused way, they quickly adapt to the consent agenda concept and use their board time for discussing strategic issues.

Agendas should be forward looking and focused on matters of strategic importance. Many board agendas are backward-looking and this encourages second guessing and drifting into management.  The priorities identified in your survey or strategic plan should be the priorities addressed at your board meetings.  Planning and evaluation of programs and services, acquisition and management of resources, assurance of integrity and accountability and the future are governance issues to be addressed by the board.

It is also helpful to stage the agenda and wise to not begin or end the meeting with an issue known to be controversial.  Table major issues if you don't have consensus.  Avoid drift and when members are off-topic have a process for quickly returning the group to the priorities at hand.  A parking lot process - where important but off topic concerns are posted on a flip chart can be an effective tool for capturing the concerns and then including them in future agendas, or at the end of the meeting if there is time and the group wants to address them.

Write an "anticipated action" for each agenda item such as approval, discussion, information, refer to committee.  Some groups also like to include an estimated time for each item. 


At the beginning of the year identify a number of educational topics that can be included on a long term agenda and then every other month or so include a 20 minute presentation or discussion. Topics can range from changing client profiles to emerging competitor organizations to board composition & diversity topics.  

There are a number of other tools including establishing norms, key metrics to monitor, meeting evaluation tools and a variety of decision making options that will be discussed in later posts.

A sample agenda follows:

                                                                
                                                                        SAMPLE AGENDA

There are a number of ways to focus board attention on priorities.  How the agenda is structured is key to that process.   This agenda begins with the mission statement as an ongoing reminder of work of the organization. It begins with a consent agenda to save time and deal with routine items which do not need discussion. The format alerts board members to what will be expected of them regarding each item.  Some organizations also like to indicate how much time will be devoted to each item.  The meeting ends with a review of actions taken and assignments made and a quick evaluation of perceptions of the meeting.

                                                                     ABC PUBLIC LIBRARY
                                                                           JUNE 1, 2008
                                                                        7:30 PM – 9:30 PM

 Mission:  ABC Public Library fosters and enhances family literacy through access, information and instructional services.

     Call to Order

                                                                                                                  ACTION                          TIME

A. Consent Agenda                                                                                    approval
    a. Approval of Minutes of May 4th meeting
    b. President’s Report
    c. Librarian’s  Report

B. Treasurer’s Report                                                                                review, file for audit

C.  Finance Committee………….Jeff Brown       
          Proposed change in insurance carrier                                             approval

D. Expand Educational Program……Susie Smith
       Documentation of need  (Program Committee)                                   approval

E. Board Assessment                                                                                 discussion
                                                                                                                  approve use of new 
                                                                                                                  evaluation tool

F.  Establish “Friends of Library” Group                                                      discussion/appoint committee

G.    Presentation by Allen Case – Libraries                                               discussion/reaction
       of the Future.

H.    Other business

I.      Announcements

J.     Meeting Evaluation

K.     Action Review

L.     Adjourn

 

Until next time,
Pat