I’ve had the luck to be on a commission, be on an editorial board, be involved with local professional association leadership, be involved with national professional association leadership, run my own company, and have countless discussions over “after beers” when I interacted with anyone else during the business of the above. If anyone were to ask me what the most important part about being a leader is… running a good meeting.
You are a leader! Your role is to enable those around you to achieve their potential. Your role is to let them figure things out, and then bring them to the table. It’s the best when a sub-committee brings a strong decision to a larger board, and all we have to do is vote to support it or not. There might be some brief discussion, but we’ve chosen the right people to be on that sub-committee… so we intrinsically trust what they bring to us.
I should state that this post assumes that it is a board meeting (or similar) with a group of people who function relatively well and are used to interacting. The opposite end of the spectrum is something like a public meeting… which would require numerous posts to address running from minimizing the opportunities for dysfunction.
Board Meetings are for reviewing and approving things.
When people slip into doing the work at a board meeting (getting into the weeds), it means one of a few things:
- The subcommittee hadn’t completed their work completely,
- Oops…
- They weren’t clear about their reason for coming to the board,
- Always be clear about what you need!
- A status report (which really has only need for minimal discussion)
- A request for approval (if it creates major discussion, it might just need to go back to committee)
- It’s just the wrong thing at the wrong time.
A (secret?) recipe for a good meeting.
- Have a good agenda.
- This should include times for each item.
- This is where you enable yourself to manage a meeting. When you get to the allocated time, you interrupt the discussion to state you have reached time. Unless the board decides to extend the time, it should be wrapped up.
- Have a secret agenda.
- This sounds bad… but isn’t. The president and executive director should have an agenda that might have extra information on it. At a minimum this should include a model motion (this can also be in the standard agenda) and any cheat notes you might want for easy access.
- This shouldn’t contain anything you wouldn’t want people to see, but it should contain the items that relate to “leadership” and helping you run the meeting well.
- Announce your role at the start of every meeting. I like to start with:
- Hi. My role is to keep this meeting going, and make sure you laugh a little.
- We will use loose Robert’s Rules for this meeting. If we find ourselves in a more complex discussion, we will use tighter Robert’s Rules and I will act as Parlimentarian to the best of my abilities.
- I will be a time fascist. My role is to keep our meeting on topic and on time. I do this to be respectful of you and your time.
- Keep to your agenda
- Be a time fascist. As said, when you hit your time use it as a point to either validate the importance of the existing discussion by extending the time, wrap it up and find the right conclusion, or save it for another meeting.
- Maintain the level of Robert’s Rules (or similar) needed for your group.
- Receive reports and information.
- Ensure that they are received with a specific intent. Is this informational, or does it have need of a motion?
- As necessary, have a model motion ready for the group and read it out as a basis for someone to easily say, “So moved.”
- Get your second, and have discussion.
- Call the question to get your vote.
- When I can’t see people (teleconference), I ask for all those who are NOT in favor. This gets to the point faster and generally becomes “motion moved unanimously”. You’ll know when you should start with those in favour, and/or ask for abstentions.
- When things get complex… make sure you know the process for friendly amendments and unfriendly amendments.
- YOU have to be the person that knows how to maintain procedural order (or the person who consults your parliamentarian and is willing to enforce it on the group). Without it your meeting will devolve.
- Keep people laughing and enjoying themselves.
- Break as necessary.
- Feel empowered as a humour broker, or empower others to do this within reason.
- During breaks and after the meeting, touch base with board members to socialize and show them people are listening. Make them feel good about themselves.
- Always find time to provide positive credit and goodness.