Board Meeting Facts
Contrary to what many believe, your board of directors does not make the majority of decisions for your company. Although they are in charge of some high-impact areas (in the case of a venture-backed business, many of those decisions are outlined in the investment and governance documents) the most important issues are taken up by committees or the management team, with input from the board.
Board meetings are typically more focused on policy, planning and oversight tasks than business operations. However, a board’s decisions can have a significant impact on a business. Therefore, it’s important to plan and run board meetings in a way that encourages constructive discussion and also results.
To ensure that the board is well informed, it is essential to ensure everyone is informed. To foster productive conversations ensure that the board materials are distributed prior to the meeting so that attendees can familiarize themselves with them before the meeting. Ideally, these documents should be clear and concise enough that they won’t take more than an hour for boardroomideas.info/what-is-reasonable-notice-for-a-board-meeting/ review.
Next, schedule time for the board to discuss. You might want to consider allowing attendees to submit brief remarks or queries in an open forum, and scheduling time for guest talks from outside parties. Schedule time for the consent agenda – an area where routine or noncontroversial issues can be ratified by a simple motion and vote.
Finally, during board meetings and board meetings, you should explain the procedure for making decisions. Determine if the goal is to reach consensus or use an official voting process and set clear criteria for evaluating new ideas. This will allow everyone to know their role and the potential negative consequences of making a poor decision.