Online board meetings are a great resource for effective decision-making. If they’re not well run, they can lead into boredom and low levels of participation. Follow these easy tips to get your virtual meetings going and increase your efficiency.
Distribute the agenda to participants prior to the meeting so that everyone has an understanding of the topics to be discussed. Think about asking your board to join the meeting from a location that is peaceful and free of distractions. Additionally, ask attendees to use your virtual meeting software’s “raise hand” function when they are ready to speak to avoid over-talking and losing the main point.
Keep the meeting focused on the most important topics by setting a agreed-upon maximum amount of time to speak for each item. This allows everyone to be involved and prevents the discussion from going off topic or distracting others. Encourage your board members not to use their microphones if they are not talking to minimize background noises such as pets, children and coworkers.
Finally, try to conclude the meeting on time since this will show respect for your fellow board members’ time. It is also a best practice to distribute the minutes as soon as the meeting is over. Additionally, it can help to streamline the process for recording and distribution of meeting minutes by using your software for managing boards that has built-in capabilities, like inline task delegation.
This will ensure that everyone on the board is on the same page regarding what happened during the meeting and what needs to be done between meetings.