The agenda of your board meeting is the guideline that guides productive meetings and assists your company to reach its goals. It sets the tone for the entire meeting, defines the topics that will be discussed, and ensures that everyone is given the same chance to take part.
Sending out the agenda well in advance will help participants be prepared and ready for participation. This also gives your participants the chance to ask questions and provide feedback in advance of the actual meeting. It is advisable to have someone who has a thorough knowledge of the company’s objectives and compliance requirements. As well as the current business trends, take the lead on developing a well-organized agenda for board meetings. This will usually be the founder of the business or the chairman of the board.
Begin the meeting with an order of the hour and an overview of the last meeting minutes. Then, include a space for reports from key department chairmen or committees (eg., governance committee reports and finance committee reports). It’s also an excellent idea to include a section for old business items (follow-ups or ongoing projects) and new business items (proposals or strategic initiatives).
Don’t overdo it. Too much information may overwhelm participants and prevent an open discussion. It is better to organize more boardroomadventures.com/how-to-plan-a-board-meeting-agenda/ detail in separate documents which can be distributed to attendees who are interested afterwards than to overload the agenda with unnecessarily detailed or lengthy reports. After all issues open and new business are addressed, the board chairperson or meeting facilitator will formally close the board meeting and call it off.
