Business owners who maintain good discipline and order across their organizations tend to have the ability to conduct good board meetings. Board meetings usually get highly formal, especially if the organization’s business hierarchy is very well structured and formal. A good chairperson or business owner would have the etiquette of a board meeting.
They are also aware of the formal procedure and how a professional board meeting is conducted. The chair needs to communicate the procedure of board meetings to the other members and ensure that everyone follows the protocols.
The chairperson of the organization doesn’t need always to hold the board meetings. The chair can be some other person; however, the chairperson always appoints the board meeting chair. It is the chair of a board meeting that tells all the board members about the meeting proceedings.
They are also responsible for facilitating the discussion across the room and providing every member of the meeting a chance to express their views. A chair can only be considered effectively unbiased if they give every member a chance to think and present their discussion views and participate equally.
The meeting chair must not indulge in the discussion by sharing their views; rather, their main focus should be to encourage and invite participation from every board meeting member. However, they may assist the board members in participation. For instance, they may further communicate the purpose of the meeting and what must be discussed. Suppose one of the members is having difficulty in understanding the motion of the meeting. In that case, it is the chair’s responsibility to assist them. However, they can also do that upon a member’s request.
The chair of a meeting is usually not allowed to vote for the motion of a meeting. There are, however, two situations in which the chair can do that:
- When the vote is by balloting
- When their vote has an impact on the outcome
Apart from that, a chair’s comprehensive role is to ensure that the meeting proceeds in order and according to the parliamentarian rules. Also, they should ensure that there is a certain fruitful outcome of the meeting that can positively impact being implemented.
Steps for conducting a board meeting
Here are a few steps in which a board meeting must be conducted:
- For starters, the quorum of the meeting must be recognized and decided. The quorum is decided while considering the meeting’s agenda and for what purpose the meeting is being held. For instance, if the board meeting is being held to discuss a few financial matters and near-future projections, all the organization’s finance executives would be invited to the meeting.
- Then comes the step of calling the meeting and fixing the meeting’s date, time, and venue.
- The minutes and agenda of the meeting are then decided and approved by every board meeting member.
- Then comes the communication and reports part, where every member of the board meeting is encouraged to participate, and everything that is discussed in the meeting is being documented. At the end of the meeting, a report is created that represents the meeting’s conclusion.
- Then the meeting comes to a close, and the motion is wrapped up on a concluding note.
The quorum of the meeting is usually mentioned in the organization’s by-laws or charter. The chair has the responsibility to ensure of the quorum is present in the meeting. If it is not defined particularly, the majority decides.
When the meeting begins, the chair’s responsibility is to declare the meeting’s order by simply presenting a statement. The chair then addresses other superficial or personal matters such as welcoming visitors or new members and thanking and paying regards to the retiring ones.
Approving the meeting minutes and deciding the agenda on which the meeting must proceed holds maximum importance in the entire planning process. The agenda is decided by the joint consent of every board meeting member. Minutes of the meeting is decided in two ways: either the chair communicates the previous meeting’s minutes to the members or sends the minutes to each member during the meeting.
A board meeting is a formal event, and it must proceed according to some preset regulations. There are particular steps that the chair or organizer must follow to ensure that perfect order is observed throughout the event.
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