A board meeting is a complex job that requires a comprehensive agenda and background information for each participant. It’s also important to keep the discussion focused on the most important issues and issues facing your company.

The presider will call the meeting to order, and ensure that there is a quorum. The meeting will then discuss any committee or officers reports that need to be approved. The board then reviews any key performance indicator (KPI) that is set up for the company in order to ensure they are on track to meet their goals.

The board will then be discussing new policies that need to be adopted and ways to improve existing processes. Finally, the board will discuss any forthcoming events or leadership changes that need to be discussed at the next meeting.

The distraction of new discussion topics can eat up meeting time and divert your board from the most critical issues. To avoid this, it’s ideal to set up an approach that lets directors “park” topics for future meetings to be data room reviews discussed or explored. In addition, it’s suggested to encourage your board members to meet prior to meeting with the chair or other directors so they can have their questions answered ahead of time and focus on discussing topics of strategic importance at the time of the meeting. This will help avoid the need to waste time in meetings and make for a more productive and efficient board of directors meetings.