Board meetings online can be conducted with all the benefits of a face-to-face meeting. By enabling everyone to attend and using modern tools for online collaboration, you can make sure that your meetings are effective and efficient. However, you’ll need to be sure that all the basics are in place.
Begin with a comprehensive list of attendees. This is an essential step for every board meeting and especially for virtual ones. If you don’t have the complete list of attendees ahead of time you risk of excluding people who may have valuable insights and ideas to offer.
It should be clear how everyone can participate in the meeting. If necessary, offer multiple ways to join, for example, using video or audio.
Make use of modern remote board software with a range of features designed to increase participation and make meetings more enjoyable. The right software will assist you in keeping your meeting on time by allowing for efficient discussion and effective minute-taking.
Set an objective for each discussion topic. This helps the meeting stay focused and reduces the time that is spent on topics that are not relevant or unnecessary. It’s also beneficial to include the time limit for each point of discussion. This is important since it’s very easy for the meeting to veer off the track and take longer than planned.
Create a waiting area for those who can’t get to the meeting, but want to. This is a good idea if there unexpected conflicts in the schedule or technical difficulties that can’t be solved.