Board meetings are the foundation to the decision-making process within membership associations. They provide an opportunity for key association staff and board members to address challenges, set strategic priorities, and ensure the association’s mission stays on course. Although, without clear structure and planning, board meetings can quickly become inefficient or unproductive.
Follow our guide from an admin point of view on the best practices for these vital meetings.
Create Clear Objectives
One of the most important steps in organising a successful meeting, is to create a concise and well-thought-out agenda. This should not only list the topics for discussion, but highlight specific outcomes expected from each item.
Prioritise the pressing issues, ensure that a specific amount of time has been allocated to each topic, and distribute the agenda to the attendees well in advance. It may be that the agenda needs to be approved by the association’s chair first, in which case we suggest the following:
- 2 weeks prior to the meeting
- Send all board papers to the chair for approval
- Remind all attendees to submit any reports to the admin team 1 week before the meeting
- 1 week prior to the meeting
- Circulate all board papers, including board member reports, to all attending
Each agenda item should align with the association’s broader goals. For example, if the main goal is to focus on increasing member engagement, then discussions on new benefits and services should be prioritised.
Encourage Active Participation
Board meetings should be treated as collaborative sessions, that encourage all attendees to participate. It’s the job of the admin team to encourage diverse perspectives across the board and avoid letting conversations turn into monologues. The admin team may find themselves prompting board members to mention an earlier point they’ve raised and forgotten about, or for them to push for a member to pick up an action raised during the meeting.
When drafting the agenda it’s good to assign different roles or tasks to different board members. One person could be allocated to provide an overview of a certain topic, whilst another can take the lead on strategy delivery.
Time Limits
When drafting the agenda, time limits are put in place for a reason. Setting limits for each agenda item can prevent meetings from overrunning and keep the discussions focused on the key items.
It’s essential that the meeting starts and ends on time. Professional membership association boards are often made up of volunteers, creating time around their work responsibilities, so it’s important to respect other’s schedules.
Assign Actions
Meetings should result in concrete actions for its attendees. When minuting the meeting, it’s often helpful to summarise any actions made in a table, which can then be reviewed at the next session. Actions should be assigned to specific board members, and a clear deadline should be put in place.
For example, if the board decides to host a series of online webinars for its members, ensure that someone is tasked with speaker selection while another person can focus on marketing the meeting to the association’s members.
Engagement
While board members are responsible for making high-level decisions for the association, it’s essential that the wider membership is engaged with and consulted. Collating and presenting feedback to the board members is an essential job for the administration team. Evaluating these results with the board will help them to expand upon the needs of the members, and what the association should do to improve.
Regular communication with the entirety of the membership about its boards plans and decisions creates a sense of transparency and trust. Key outcomes from board meetings should be shared in newsletters, blog posts, and online.
How We Can Help
While there are a huge number of benefits to being part of a professional membership associations management committee, it’s important to realise that there are heavy responsibilities. Many tasks can seem quite daunting or time consuming, which is why it’s important to work alongside a reliable administration management team.
At Cygnul we work in partnership with our clients and are seen as trusted advisors to the Board. We can undertake the full range of membership, secretarial and bookkeeping services as well as offering advice and support to associations around the UK. If you want to explore how these services could help your organisation, please get in touch with us.