How to hold a board meeting (or ‘what to pack in my Board Pack’)

So, how to properly run a board meeting? 

Without a structure, the meeting can be about how well the company has been performing in recent weeks, when there are more strategic things the Board needs to stay on top of.

The first step is an Agenda.  To build that, you need a board Calendar. 

Preparing a board Calendar helps you work out how many board meetings you need in a year.  

• The calendar should apportion items across the year so each meeting is an appropriate length. 
• The calendar lists all the important items not to forget – for example insurance renewal and sign off of annual report and accounts. 

Fewer than 10 meetings, means longer meetings. Little but often is good.

In the Agenda, there should be certain standing items:  

• Approval of the previous minutes
• Review of the actions from the last meeting
• Next the risk register – every meeting should review risks the company is facing and carry out a horizon scanning exercise.  This doesn’t need to be long, to be effective
• Review of corporate objectives and associated metrics.  You may want to cover key business functions within this, such as sales and customer satisfaction.

The review of corporate objectives is typically accompanied by departmental reports (which can just be a few lines) feeding back on performance from different team perspectives.  Board reports on risk and objectives tracking, need to be structured and cover specific targets and metrics, not simply ‘how good or bad the situation is’.

Finally there will often be some items that need approval or review.  These can be regulatory, such as health and safety policies, HR manual, he business continuity plan, bribery and corruption policy, etc

Aim to get the board pack out to directors in time for a meaningful discussion.  In advance for directors to review, the items have the benefit of early consideration. 

The Board Originator Power Tools include board software – and diary reminders – that automate the above – taking all the hard work out for you.  Log on for faster, well organised board meetings – with all the right ingredients – signed, saved and stored (your automated minute book).

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