The pandemic has made it harder than ever for nonprofits to run and build community support. Many are relying on remote board meetings to make critical decisions and ensure their existence. It can be challenging to manage a remote board meeting efficiently without the physical presence of every member.
A clear, specific agenda will aid in keeping your remote board meeting on topic and focused. Involve your board in the agenda-setting process to find out the topics that need to be discussed. Then, send the agenda to all attendees as far in advance as possible to allow them to prepare. This will ensure that they are fully aware of the topics that need to be discussed and they can add anything to the agenda before hand. Utilizing a secure online board portal to distribute the agenda and other documents will help to he has a good point reduce security risks.
Video can be used to increase participation in remote board meetings, by adding a vital face-toface element to the discussions. Additionally, video makes it easier for attendees to look at the body language of others and take note of non-verbal signals like impatience, boredom or excitement.
Meeting in person may be difficult to schedule for busy boards that juggle multiple personal and professional commitments. With remote board meeting software, finding an acceptable time for all attendees can be much simpler. Tools such as SavvyCal’s polls for meetings let you propose multiple times for your meeting, and let everyone vote on which times work best for them. This removes the need for re-inforcing emails and could save you a lot of time and effort.