Board meetings must be productive, but it requires some preparatory work. The board needs an easy way to schedule, store and share important information for upcoming meetings without wasting time coordinating emails or digging through spreadsheets. So, how to create an effective board meeting agenda?
The value of setting the board meeting agenda
Out of 55 million daily meetings, only half met their goals. With only 20% trained meeting leaders, there is a growing meeting accountability gap where most organizations fail to evaluate the impact of their meetings. While a meeting agenda sets the direction of the meeting, there is still more to be done on the leadership and meeting management side to ensure an effective team meeting – the biggest thing is preparation. During the preparation of the meeting, the agenda may be changed and supplemented. In addition, board participants have the right to propose, and in some cases require, the inclusion of certain issues on the agenda.
Board agenda setting means determining or specifying the purpose, discussion points, length, expected outcome, and who is responsible for the discussion points of a meeting. Preparing for a board meeting gives attendees a high-level view of the meeting’s goals and action points. A professional prepares and schedules a meeting by setting the meeting agenda. The team meeting agenda shows participants the agenda topics, expected outcome, and time frame so everyone can prepare their talking points in advance and stick to the topic of discussion. Besides, 64% of board meeting attendees believe the best way to get them excited about a meeting is to plan it well. However, the same research found that the younger generation prefers a free lunch.
Here are important things that should always be on your meeting agenda:
- purpose
- list of topics and their time slots
- discussion leader
- location/platform.
The board will also allow individuals to express an opinion on any agenda item that the board deems necessary or will benefit from public comment before any board resolution.
Board software: how to plan agenda automatically?
Today modern companies have already automated and optimized most routine business operations with the help of digital tools. The board portal template makes planning and organizing such meetings efficient and effortless. The board meeting agenda template is a single tool that allows you to share the agenda of the meeting, record instructions during the meeting, and store all important documentation, such as minutes of previous meetings and background materials. For example, you can overview of Nasdaq board portal.
In the Nasdaq solution, all documents are arranged by a board meeting. The agenda and all associated documents can be found here in advance, and afterward, the report and the action list. They will be immediately available if there are any additions to a document or more up-to-date figures just before the meeting. The members can choose who gets to see what information. In this way, simple questions, for example, for clarification or explanation, can easily be answered before the meeting.
The agenda is formed by days, starting from the current date. The document consists of two parts: on the left is a personal calendar where your calendar events are marked, and on the right is a list of your tasks for the day. The list of tasks includes:
- tasks that expire on that day,
- overdue tasks,
- tasks for which labor costs are planned for you,
- checkpoints scheduled for that day.