- Time: 2 hours
- Participants: 5-10
- Difficulty: Easy
- Facilitators: 1
Objectives
- For all board members to align on the strategic plan of the organization, make adjustments and set follow-up actions
- For all board members and directors to provide reports on their areas of operation to the rest of the board
- To monitor financial performance, consult the budget and make informed decisions
- Review company operations and ensure they are aligned with strategy
- To use the collective intelligence of the board to discuss tough problems, explore new ideas and find solutions
When should this session be delivered?
The frequency of a board meeting can vary from organization to organization though most boards meet around once a quarter or four times a year.
Some organizations prefer to convene their boards at the beginning of each calendar month, allowing each committee chair to report on the previous months results. This can be especially important for companies whose finances need more constant attention, such as in early stage start-ups.
At the far end, some organizations meet only once or twice a year. When considering the frequency of your board meetings, consider how much their was to discuss and whether you covered everything you needed to in the time allocated.
If there was too much business to cover or certain issues were not brought to the board quickly enough, perhaps you need to increase the frequency. Don’t have enough to talk about? Consider lowering the frequency.
Looking for some more inspiration? Check out our selection of meeting agenda templates to go further.
Who can facilitate it?
A board meeting should be held with a minimum of the directors, the board chair and the board secretary present.
The board chair will run and facilitate the board meeting. While this can be seen as a purely facilitative post, the board chair’s role goes much further than that. This person tries to focus on what is best for the organization and often refers back to the companies values and mission statement during discussions.
Note that a board meeting should also typically go forward only when there is a quorum present. A quorum is often a fixed percentage of board members (usually 50% or higher) or the presence of a fixed number of board members.
Consult your organization’s bylaws for guidance on the quorum requirement for your board.
Check out the board meeting template details including step-by-step plan with instructions, timings, printable schedule and more
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