Online board meetings are a convenient way for nonprofits and their staff to conduct business. However, as with any other meeting, the effectiveness of a virtual board tech-enabled board portals for strategic oversight meeting is affected by a variety of factors. This article provides suggestions for making your virtual board meetings efficient and addresses common pitfalls that can be avoided.
Inactivity
Many boards for nonprofits discover that they face challenges in keeping attendees from remote locations entertained during meetings. This is especially true if you’ve switched from face-to-face meetings to remote sessions. Meetings can suffer from low participation when your board members aren’t used to video-based communication, or if they are struggling with the technology itself.
It is hard to convince participants to attend the virtual meeting if committee reports are not the most interesting element of the agenda. To combat this, ask your committee chairpersons to include a question or request for feedback from the board in their reports.
Inadequate meeting minutes
The designated minutes-takers on your board are accountable for ensuring that all critical discussions and decisions of your virtual meetings are recorded in a clear and concise manner. They should not discuss personal opinions or informal discussions and try to achieve a balance between concision and thoroughness. It is also important that your minutes are recorded verbatim, and that you have an established system to ensure safe storage of all documents that are related to the meeting, such as governing documents financial reports, and much more. This will help avoid confusion and help improve accountability.