A board meeting agenda is a document that can help you keep your meetings efficient and on time. When it comes to maximizing the time that your board members spend together, substance is more important than style.

Begin with a call for order and an introduction from the facilitator or the chair of the board to officially open your meeting. Then, you could decide to approve the minutes of the previous meeting or the financial report. You can also look over committee updates or administrative tasks. It’s a good idea to create a separate section for strategic planning discussions or other governance issues. You may also want to include a sensitive or confidential issue in an executive session, if the company’s bylaws permit it.

Pay attention and take note of every point. It is important to raise any concerns or questions you have regarding the presentation and let your fellow board members respond. However, be careful not to get side-tracked and begin to discuss discussion topics that aren’t appropriate for the agenda. This could eat up valuable meeting time and distract attention from the most important issues on your board’s agenda. You can stop this from happening by www.boardroomsonline.blog/how-to-make-a-board-meeting-schedule adding a “parking area” item at the end of your agenda. This will allow you to push various topics off for later.

Also, be sure to send your board members the agenda at least a week in advance of your scheduled meeting. This will allow everyone ample time to review and prepare for the meeting. It’s also a great idea to include the meeting agenda with any supporting documents that board members require to fully comprehend the subject in hand.