Board meetings are essential for helping make strategic decisions, nail down company policies and more. Yet, these meetings are often dull and full of routine things which can take a long time to prepare for. While it may seem like the tedious task of preparing for the board meeting is just another administrative burden, properly-prepared directors can leave a positive impression on the board members way beyond the surface.

Start planning board meetings by creating a draft agenda that specifies the time for each item to be discussed. It is important to design the agenda based on the amount of time, which allows enough time to discuss each topic in depth and to allow for questions.

Once the agenda is prepared the agenda should be sent out to board members to allow them to begin preparing. At minimum, a few days prior to the meeting, you should distribute the agenda to the board members. Boards that utilize portals are able to collect and send all the necessary documents needed for a meeting by pressing a button.

It is important to establish how formal or informal your board wishes its meetings to be, since this will have an effect on the meeting structure and the manner in which you address other board members. For example some boards follow Robert’s Rules of Order, which is very formal and consists of calling other board members by their title and address them with “Mr.” or “Madam”. It is essential to get acquainted with the rules, regardless of the format you choose. This will ensure that you do not be awed at your first meeting.

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