A board meeting agenda sets the tone and structure of your board meetings. A well-planned agenda for meetings will help you avoid common pitfalls which can lead to poor decision-making and reduce productivity.
The first item in the agenda of a meeting of the board should be “Calling to Order and Time”. The chairperson should call the board to order and introduce new members, or give other opening remarks. It’s also a good time to discuss any changes to the agenda and approve previous minutes.
Each item on the agenda of a board meeting should contain a brief description of what will be discussed as well as a brief overview of any supporting documents. By providing this information ahead of time, you can save time during the meeting and ensures that all attendees have access key background material. It also helps keep the discussion focused and productive.
Prioritize your board agenda items in accordance with their importance, urgency and alignment with your strategy goals. This will prevent you from the time and energy of meetings wasted on things that are not relevant or of low impact. If you have too many agenda items you need to address in a single meeting, consider having follow-up meetings or assigning these to committees with specialized expertise to conduct a more thorough investigation.
Also, make sure you set realistic timeframes for each agenda item. This will stop discussions from running over the time limit and allow you to conclude your meeting on time. These timeframes should only be used as guidelines. It is okay to adjust them if you need to during the meeting. For example, if you know your board tends to ask a lot of questions on a particular topic, you might want to give it more time the next time.