Planning and preparations for a board meeting are lengthy and can begin weeks in advance of the meeting date, and its quality has a lot to do with the productivity of the meeting. In this article, we will go over, step by step, how to properly prepare for a board meeting and what you need to do.
What do I need to do before the board meeting?
Below we outline the main things you must do before the board meeting:
- Step #1
Before the board meeting begins, all board members should have an agenda in hand and be informed of, time, date, and location of the meeting. Make sure you send out these notices. It may be that the secretary is required to give public notice under the bylaws, then you publish it according to your company’s unique requirements. Along with the notices, you also need to send out invitations to the meeting.
After that, move on to setting the agenda. You can refer to the minutes of the previous meeting to review follow-up tasks and include them in the preliminary agenda. The initial version of the agenda should be sent to the CEO for approval first and only then to everyone else.
- Step #2
Take care of the meeting place and reserve it. Also take care of those attendees who are going to attend the meeting remotely and set up a way for them to join and think about additional pieces of equipment like screens, projectors, or audio equipment and where to get them.
- Step #3
At this point, you need to know exactly how many people will attend the meeting. You need to contact any directors who have not responded to the meeting notice and find out if they will be there. Then make up a transportation itinerary and make hotel reservations for those who responded.
- Step #4
An agenda helps the board always follow a clear plan but also stay flexible. It includes items that have not been resolved since the last meeting, items to be resolved at this meeting, and the time, date, and place of the meeting. The agenda should be prepared with the CEO and should take into account approximate attendance, meeting time and how long each item on the agenda will take, discussions, incentive strategies, etc.
When the agenda is ready you should add reports to them, distribute the finished version to board members with an expectation of the time in which they can offer their corrections.
- Step #5
This step is fairly simple but requires care. You need to gather all the materials you need for the board of directors and send them out to all the other board members a week before the meeting. This would be much easier if you used a board portal when doing this.
- Step #6
Prepare an agenda template, add the necessary sections for major and supplemental items, and leave room for notes.
- Step #7
The day before the meeting, you’ll need to make sure everything is in order. To do this, check the room where the meeting will be held and make sure everyone involved knows how to get there. Prepare all the equipment needed for the meeting, laptops, flash drives, chargers, etc., and most importantly get a good night’s rest.
What to do after the meeting?
After the meeting, you need to clean up after yourself both literally and figuratively. Make sure there is no sensitive material left in the room, delete all notices of the meeting, this will increase the security of your data. Also, change the minutes and reconfirm them with management if there were any changes made during the meeting.