How to Prepare for a Board Meeting

Preparation is the best way to ensure that your board meetings will be productive and efficient. Making preparations for a board session isn’t just about making sure that you have the right room and equipment, but ensuring that your entire team has the necessary knowledge to have a successful discussion.

Begin by setting the agenda. Set the date and time ahead of time so that your team has time to plan their attendance and mark their calendars. This also allows you to send out materials for board meetings prior to the meeting, so that your board members can examine them prior to the meeting.

During this time it’s a good idea to consider what topics are the most relevant and essential to discuss. You should also consider what you would like to accomplish during the meeting, as well as any milestones or actions to meet. This will help you decide how much time to allocate to each item, and keep your meeting focused and on-track.

Create a plan of action and distribute it to the board chair and executive as well as any other stakeholders in the mix. Often, new ideas will be try these out proposed at this point, so it’s important to be flexible and realistic in the way you manage new items. Think about parking or putting items aside for a later meeting when they don’t appear be appropriate.

It’s important to have a system in place for recording and disseminating minutes. Boardable allows you to distribute minutes once they are ready. You can assign tasks to board members and track progress between meetings.