The pandemic has made it harder than ever before for non-profit organizations to function and gain community support. Many depend on remote board meetings to make critical decisions and ensure their continued existence. It can be challenging to manage a remote board meeting efficiently without the physical presence of every member.
A clear, specific agenda will help keep your remote board meeting focused and on topic. Include your board in the process of setting the agenda. This will help you decide what topics to cover. Then, send the agenda ahead of time as you can to all attendees so that they can plan. This will help ensure they have a full understanding of what’s to be discussed and can add any items to the agenda ahead of time. A secure board portal for the distribution of agenda items and other documents will also help to reduce security risks.
Video can improve the engagement of remote board meetings by adding a vital face-toface element to the discussion. Video also lets participants observe the body expressions of others and observe non-verbal signals such as anger, frustration or boredom.
It can be difficult for busy boards to plan meetings in person, particularly when they have a lot of personal and professional commitments. With remote board meeting software, determining a convenient time for all attendees can be much easier. Tools like SavvyCal’s free polls for meetings allow you to suggest multiple times for your meeting and let participants vote on the times that work best for them. This removes the need for re-inforcing emails and saves you a lot of time and hassle.