5 Tips for Creating Efficient Virtual Board Meetings

While many organizations have returned to in-person board meetings as COVID restrictions ease, others have stuck with digital meetings.

After all, virtual board meetings have numerous advantages. You can contact board members who live in another location, share materials easily, encourage participation with push notifications and improve efficiency.

Of course, a virtual boardroom can have some drawbacks as well. Board members can become distracted when using a board portal. In addition, board management software comes with a learning curve and may take a while to get used to.

However, with some extra planning, organizations can avoid potential issues and utilize their board portal software to the best of their ability.

Within this article, we’ll be covering five tips for creating efficient virtual board meetings. Read on for more information.

1. Create a clear agenda

A clear agenda is the best way to remember important topics of discussion, tasks, and decisions. Without a clear structure, a board meeting can easily go off the rails with the natural flow of conversation and deliberation.

An agenda will keep you on track and structure your board meeting minutes properly, developing a stronger record of the topics covered during the session.

Follow these suggestions to create a clear agenda for your organization’s board meetings.

1. Logically organize your agenda and include talking points in the order you should address them.

2. Establish a set amount of time for each talking point to stop the meeting from going on longer than necessary.

3. Assign a speaker for each talking point to avoid confusion about who leads the discussion at specific junctures.

4. Provide necessary information via your board of directors software, so members have everything they need before the meeting. Don’t include too much information — a short contextual description for every point should suffice. You can also use the platform’s board document management tools to provide essential documents if required.

2. Send important documents beforehand

A virtual board portal can prepare you for your meeting well ahead of time. While the agenda will add structure to proceedings, it’s also important to have all those documents available before the meeting starts.

Board members should be given a chance to review those documents before the meeting starts so they can develop ideas and make valuable contributions to the discussion at hand. Each document should be linked in your agenda, so the team can find them quickly when the topic comes up. This technique also allows new board members to prepare any questions about the documents and meeting procedure.

You should also set a reminder at least one day in advance, your board management software should have tools to set reminders and ensure board members know the date and time of the meeting — they’ll also be alerted when a new document is available to view.

3. Try to encourage participation from board members

One of the hardest parts of virtual board meetings is keeping people engaged. When somebody works from home, there will be more distractions than there would be in the boardroom. However, consistent communication increases involvement and keeps board members engaged. This communication should apply to meetings and outside the meeting as well. You can do this in numerous ways.

1. Acknowledge board members individually. This encourages people to speak without talking over somebody else.

2. Make sure video cameras are on. If everybody has their video camera on, it simulates the feel of being in a face-to-face board meeting despite being online. Members will also be more likely to pay attention.

3. Be sure to thank everybody for their participation. Let them know you appreciate their hard work. If you make your fellow board members feel valued they are more likely to participate.

4. Keep meeting on-time and short

Nobody wants to sit through an overly long board meeting, especially if the meeting is online. The constant looking at the screen and struggling to read body language can be very tiring after an hour. In fact, the team will start losing focus as early as 10 minutes into your session. As such, you’ll want to keep your meetings as short and efficient as you can.

Use organization tools like the virtual board portal’s agenda function to keep things on track and consider whether your planned topics can be covered in a message or email instead.

5. Outline actionable steps

When the board meeting is over, everybody should know the tasks that need to be completed before you reconvene at a later date. There are numerous ways you can make sure everybody knows the next steps at the end of the meeting.

• Record those steps in the board meeting minutes. They can be recorded and stored on your board portal

• Assign tasks to individual members. These steps will be listed on their dashboard whenever they log on.

• Set the date for the next meeting. Everybody should agree on a time for your next virtual meeting.

• Send an email summarizing those steps. A follow-up email is good for reinforcing the tasks at hand and making sure the team is on the same page.

Bottom line

By following these tips, your organization can make the most of any board meeting and ensure productivity and efficiency among all team members.

A virtual boardroom can facilitate good practice and ensure everybody remains on-task, even when working remotely. If you consider choosing a virtual boardroom for your business, visit https://board-room.org/ and see some of the boardrooms on the market worth your comparison.

While the transition to virtual meetings may take some getting used to, it will pay off in the long run, while streamlining your board’s practices and improving your organization as a result.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes