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Eliminating the Mundane Meeting— How A Board Portal Can Help
By Allix Beckmann, February 18, 2019
Board meetings— a necessary component of a well-run organization
or company. These meetings are often where innovative ideas come to
fruition. It’s also where some of the most important discussions regarding your
organization and its governance take place.
Unfortunately, these meetings also come with a long list of
mundane tasks that can quickly lead members to burn-out, and distract from the
most important thing— your mission.
Without the use of a board portal, preparing for board meetings
can look a little like this:
1 month before meeting:
The Board Chair emails the other members a copy of the previous meeting’s minutes along with
options for the next meeting date. After a few days, many board members have
replied to the email, but some still haven’t. Relying on email to schedule a
meeting has its own unique challenges as well. An emailed meeting invitation
can easily get lost in inboxes or, for various reasons, could fail to be
delivered at all. At this point, the Chair might need to send
separate emails to members to inquire about their availability. Once the
majority of members have responded, a date is set.
2 weeks before meeting:
The Board Chair reviews the previous minutes, and builds an
agenda based off of it. Once the agenda is finalized, the Chair will need to
locate, compile, and make copies of all the supporting documents that will
accompany the agenda.
1 week before meeting:
An email of
the meeting packet is sent out to members, which includes: previous minutes,
current agenda, supporting documents, and other items that need to be
discussed. When sending important meeting documents to other members, security
is often a concern for the organization. Another option the Board Chair may
consider is a courier service, but that can often include additional printings
and more expenses for the organization.
Week of meeting:
Packets are printed out for all of the board members that will be
in attendance. The Board Chair may also be answering members’ emails or phone
calls about the meeting.
Morning of meeting:
The meeting room is set up, snacks are prepared, and meeting packets
or binders are printed, divided, and ready for the members. During the meeting,
the Secretary or another board member will have to write down most of the
discussions for recording later in the meeting minutes.
If you’re a board chair or committee leader,
you’d agree that completing all of these tasks each month or quarter can really
distract from things that help further your organization’s mission— like meeting potential new
members, attending community events, leadership retreats, or planning new,
innovative ways to keep your board mission-focused.
Here are a few ways a board portal software like BoardPaq can make
easier work of this time-consuming process, and allow more time for the things
that matter :
As the leading board
management vendor, BoardPaq hopes to see engaged board and committee leaders
who aren’t weighed down with unnecessary tasks. Utilizing time-saving features like
the agenda and minutes builder, document viewing, and meeting calendar allows space
to plan for more important things— like the discussions and ideas that could
greatly impact your organization and industry.
Interested in seeing how BoardPaq can eliminate the mundane tasks
that come with preparing for a board meeting?
Schedule a demo today!
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