Board of Directors meetings is where a company’s most influential decision-makers come together to discuss reports, make decisions, and establish the direction for how the company will proceed. These decisions can have a massive impact on the company, from determining management team composition to establishing company policies and even making decisions about granting stock options. This is a critical time for the company and it requires the collective wisdom of its most influential leaders to guide the company through the complexities of decision making.
The first step is to determine a date for the meeting that will allow a sufficient number of members to constitute a sufficient quorum. It is also essential to avoid conflicts with members who have unique insights on upcoming issues. Then it’s a matter of making a board-related document that contains all relevant figures, projections and financial information for the meeting. Boards can make use of online tools like http://boardroomsite.com Google Docs to create their package, which is collaborative and have a voting system to make quick decisions.
The board examines the minutes from the previous meeting at the time of the actual meeting, and they discuss anything new that has been brought up. Directors with potential conflicts of interest are required to disclose those and recuse themselves from any discussion. Once the main topics are discussed, the board is able to suspend the meeting if any other procedural matters are resolved.
It’s easy to forget that although your fellow board members are influential, they’re also just people. They’ll have their own opinions, strengths and weaknesses. They might not be as smart or thoughtful as you believe, they could get frustrated and confused, and they will be like everyone else who is prone to whining. ).