The board of directors is an important decision-making body, which is responsible for monitoring the performance of the business and its strategic direction. In order to make informed decisions, the board has to be in contact with the company’s key leaders and keep current on relevant information and data. Board meetings are a great opportunity to accomplish this.
Board members usually attend in person, however with a a growing number of people working remotely the use of teleconferences is becoming more frequent. Meetings can be held frequently, as often as every week or once a year.
In the process of preparing for your next board meeting, think about providing a portal containing the most recent board materials and agendas that have been saved to help your directors quickly find what they need and to focus on the most important discussions. Facilitate a pre-meeting discussion with your fellow directors to have any questions or concerns addressed so that the meeting time can be devoted to discussing strategies rather than examining a litany of reports.
The board members spend most of their time discussing the performance of the company – reviewing any major updates that have taken place since the last meeting, analyzing KPIs, and discussing the future strategy. The board is also able to review and accept a list of old or new business items. After all of this Data Management the board will normally close the meeting.