The quality of your board meetings depends on the amount of work participants complete prior to each meeting. When participants are prepared and prepare, they can make online meetings more productive and efficient. A well-prepared team is more likely to adhere to the agenda, and ensure that they don’t get sidetracked by a tangent.
It’s crucial to establish clear expectations for members of remote boards on how they’re expected to attend meetings. It is best, for instance to remind the participants that they must mute themselves when speaking, and only speak when they are asked to. This stops people from talking over each other or leaving a gathering without feeling heard. Before a meeting starts, the convenor should ask participants if they have any tech issues they require assistance with.
It’s also helpful to include the rules for virtual meetings in the board member’s orientation materials to ensure that everyone has complete understanding of what’s expected of them before, during, and following the meeting. It’s essential, for example to provide the agenda in advance and then to follow up each day or early in the morning to confirm the agenda details. It is also possible to give the link to the meeting or Zoom to participants once more and remind them about any other preferences you might have (such as soliciting them to tune in to the meeting from a quiet area to limit tricks to organize workflow distractions). It is also recommended to add a placeholder for an executive session to each agenda item and to include it at the beginning of the meeting to avoid confusion as to whether there will be an executive session.