How to adapt your nonprofit board agenda and board report for virtual board meetings
Every nonprofit director knows that the board report can produce significant anxiety. You stress over what to include, how much detail to give, and whether or not your board is even listening. Sound about right?
First things first, if you haven’t read this blog post about how a board report template can save your sanity, go ahead and read that one first. Once you have your board report template in place, adapting it for virtual board meetings will be a much easier task.
COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc worldwide, and many nonprofits have yet to return to standard, in-person board meetings. Some question if you even have to return to the old way of sitting around the table every month. The answer is no; you don’t have to.
But, should you? Should your nonprofit move to a virtual board meeting as a standard or consider adopting a hybrid board meeting model for good? And if you move to a virtual or hybrid model, how do you adapt your board meeting agenda and executive director board report to the new format?
Let’s begin with looking at whether or not a virtual or hybrid model is suitable for your nonprofit. This meeting checklist can help you decide:
Do your state regulations allow for remote meetings? Review your organization’s by-laws and ensure the legal language provides for the option of remote meetings. Seek out legal counsel if your by-laws do not explicitly address the issue to ensure you follow all of your state’s legal requirements. If necessary, you can meet in person to vote on a by-law amendment.
Do your state mandates require social distancing, masks, or other COVID-19 safety measures for meetings? If the answer is yes, and your standard in-person meeting setup does not allow for such actions, moving to a remote or hybrid session will be necessary, at least until the mandates are adjusted.
Does your nonprofit have adequate technology to support a remote meeting? The last 18 months have been a wake-up call for many nonprofits that lacked appropriate technology for remote work. At a minimum, you’ll need a high-speed internet connection, a microphone, and preferably a suitable webcam.
If your nonprofit cannot adequately host an effective remote meeting, it may be best to find a suitable location where board members can be socially distanced in person instead. Check with your local business partners to explore potential meeting spaces that are large enough to accommodate your group, or if your area offers coworking spaces, those often include conference areas for general use.
Is your board on board? Don’t overlook the feedback of your board members. In the most effective board meetings, members are engaged and active with plenty of discussions. Remote meetings will be more challenging to keep board members active and engaged, so everyone will need to commit to being focused, avoid other distractions, and keep their cameras on for the duration of the meeting. If you do not have buy-in from your entire board, it may be best to stick to standard in-person meetings.
If you decide to proceed with either a fully remote or hybrid board meeting, you’ll want to make some adjustments to your board meeting agenda and executive director board report.
How to adapt your board meeting agenda and board report for a remote board meeting
Adjust your agenda to keep the meeting to one hour or less if possible. It’s hard enough to maintain someone’s full attention around a table, so adding in the distractions of remote attendees who might be traveling, sitting outside, in an office, or a noisy home will only increase your challenges.
Flip your board agenda upside down! If you haven’t explored using this technique, I provide an agenda template and teach an entire segment on this concept inside The Board Course. This concept literally flips your board meeting agenda upside down, putting the most important and big picture discussion ideas right upfront and leaving all the mundane items like approving minutes and long, drawn-out reports to the end.
The “upside-down board agenda” also includes using strategic discussion leaders to encourage participation from all board members.
Encourage committee leaders to go digital. If you do not currently require your committee leaders to provide their updates and reports digitally, now is the time to make the transition. Committee leaders should provide their updates and reports to the Board Chair and the Executive Director at least one week before the meeting and be prepared to give just a 2-3 minute summary of the report at the meeting if needed.
Committee reports are typically the least-engaging part of a meeting and often become a dreaded portion of the agenda. To make them more effective, ask committee chairs to focus on including how the whole board can support the committee's work.
Send your agenda out early and follow up. I always recommend sending your board agenda out at least 3-5 days before each meeting. With remote or hybrid sessions, it’s a good practice to follow up the day before or morning of the meeting to confirm all the meeting details, give the Zoom or meeting link again, and note any meeting preferences like asking members to call from a quiet location.
If you’re using a board member portal, add all necessary documents to the portal and provide a link in your follow-up email to remind members to either print them out or have them accessible during the meeting.
If your board members request physical copies of board meeting materials, have a plan in place to print, copy, and distribute those materials with plenty of advance notice. You can work with your local printer supplier to find the best equipment that minimizes your printing costs and use volunteers to help deliver printed copies if needed to save on mailing costs.
Organize your board report to first highlight areas that require board members to make a decision or vote. By including the most important and pertinent items first, you will likely have more participation and input.
If you’ve included the “question to ponder” in your board report ahead of time (concept described in the Executive Director Board Report Template), address specific board members by name for their thoughts and ideas. Using first names throughout the meeting is a great way to engage remote members, especially.
Deciding whether to move board meetings to fully remote, a hybrid model, or keep them socially distanced in person is just one of the thousands of decisions nonprofits must make right now. Ultimately, basing this decision on your specific nonprofit’s situation, priorities, and board members will offer the best outcome.
If you decide to move the meetings online, keeping in mind these agenda and board report strategies will help you maintain an effective and efficient meeting that keeps board members engaged, active, and invested in your work.
Until next time,
Andrea