Board meetings are crucial for helping make strategic decisions as well as to set the company’s policies, and much more. They can be dull and filled with mundane items. They also require an enormous amount of time to plan. While it may appear that preparing for a meeting of the board is just another chore board members who are well-prepared leave a lasting impression on their fellow board members.

Create an agenda for board meetings that lists the time allocated to each item. It is helpful to plan the agenda based on the number of hours that are needed that will allow you enough time to discuss each topic in depth and to leave room for questions.

After the agenda has been prepared and distributed to board members so that they can begin to prepare. At least a day or so prior to the meeting, you should distribute the agenda to the board members. Boards that use portals are able to collect and send all the necessary documents needed for a meeting by simply clicking the button.

It is important to determine the formality or informality your board would like its meetings to be, since this will have an impact on the meeting structure and how you address other members of the board. For example, some boards use Robert’s Rules of Order, which is formal and involves calling other board members by their titles and using the terms “Mr.” or “Madam”. It is essential to get familiar with the rules regardless of the format you choose. This will help you not be astonished these details at the first meeting.