Board meetings require careful preparation to ensure that everyone understands the issues they’ll be discussing as well as the actions that are taken. These tips will help you to design a meeting structure that is consistent and maximizes results each time your board is meeting.

In the lead-up to the meeting, it’s important to review the previous minutes from the last board meeting. Also, request that each director submit any reports or other material that are required to be included in the agenda. Also, determine the chairperson’s preferences in the presentation and organization of the board’s books. Some prefer a high level of detail, whereas others prefer the more traditional “dashboard” approach.

Prioritizing a couple of key agenda items for each meeting is a good guideline to avoid bogging down meetings with long reports and other topics that are routine. Also, try to not schedule more than 30 minutes for each agenda item to ensure that you can allow each topic adequate time.

It’s also recommended to invite members from outside the board to board meetings to provide new perspectives and ideas. It could cost more to bring in independent members of the board, but the benefits and perspectives that they provide are often worth it.

Finally, be sure to include the key decisions being made during the meeting so that all directors can identify and agree http://boardroomsystems.net/how-to-take-notes-at-a-board-meeting or disagree with the decision. It’s also a good idea to assign department heads to each decision, so that they are able to communicate the outcome of the meeting to their teams.