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11 Steps To Writing Effective Board Papers Every Time

If you’re not entirely sure what board papers are, let’s start there. Board papers outline key information on the discussion points, decisions and actions required for a board meeting and are usually a few pages in length. This is not to be confused with board minutes, which are different. Generally speaking, guidelines for a board paper include: Board papers are a critical piece of the puzzle when it comes to governance, giving the key decision-makers the information they need and keeping board meetings as structured and effective as possible. Without being part of the day-to-day running of a business, the...

How to Prepare Board of Directors Annual Calendar + Template

As company secretary, it’s important to keep the board of directors on track. Each member of the board will have their own priorities, workloads and other matters to attend to. However, creating an annual calendar in advance means everyone can schedule the time, which will increase the likelihood of attendance and always having a quorum. It’s important to remember that most votes can’t take place without a quorum; this means you need to do everything in your power to make it easy for individual members to attend each meeting. A thoroughly planned schedule ensures that all key dates, issues and...

How To Take Executive Session Minutes (With An Example)

If and when the time comes to take executive session minutes, they must be treated separately from the minutes of the main meeting before or after which the executive session occurs. This is a type of confidential meeting that doesn't tend to involve ‘outsiders’. In this case, outsiders are considered those that aren’t members of the board, such as staff or advisors, but this can vary. However, unless explicitly stated, minutes should still be taken to keep a record of the session. Let’s take a look at what the process is in this scenario and how executive session minutes differ...

Solidify The Relationship Between The Board And The Executive Director

“Trust is like the air we breathe. When it’s present nobody really notices, but when it’s absent, everybody notices.” – Warren Buffett The responsibility of the executive director (or CEO) and the board of directors is, ultimately, to drive the business forward. Ideally, they would be focused on generating revenue and profit for private companies as well as driving donations, fundraising activities and operations for nonprofit organisations.  While the CEO and the board have shared long-term goals, sometimes they can disagree or miscommunicate and relationships can suffer. In these situations, strengthening the relationship between the board of directors and the...

Zero mail — How to win the battle for your inbox

An empty, tidy and well-arranged mailbox. Who doesn't want that? Zero Mail or Inbox Zero is a term you hear a lot: no email. Zero Mail gives you a clear view of your inbox. But it goes further than that: it's about setting priorities. Merlin Mann, the creator of this method, originally saw the inbox zero technique as a "step-by-step solution for email management". In the United States, Merlin Mann is recognised as a productivity guru. His area of ​​expertise is email management and personal effectiveness. Focus is also a term that comes up often: concentrating completely and not working...

The Subtle Art Of Holding The Board Of Directors Accountable

“The board’s role is to pull management out of the trees to see the forest”  — Pearl Zhu Directors should have their eyes on the organisation’s strategy. They should oversee the execution of that strategy and make sure that managers can see the bigger picture.  But how do you hold the board of directors accountable? And how do you quantify what they have achieved? With managers, it’s easy. There are concrete targets to meet and specific projects to carry out. But directors’ to-do lists are much more fluid and their achievements are sometimes realised in the long term, making it...

Robert's Rules of Order: The Meeting Agenda Simplified

In the 1870s, Henry Martyn Robert — an American soldier and engineer — created Robert's Rules of Order. Initially intended as a way to run church meetings, Robert’s Rules were, at first, inspired by the senate procedure at the time. Now, it’s the most widely-used rulebook for the parliamentary procedure in the United States. But many organisations around the world also use it for their committee meetings and board meetings. What are Robert’s Rules? Robert’s Rules of Order are a set of rules to effectively run a meeting with the following democratic principles in mind: Things have changed a lot...

Robert's Rules of Order for Voting - All You Need To Know

“The greatest lesson for democracies to learn is for the majority to give to the minority a full, free opportunity to present their side of the case, and then for the minority, having failed to win a majority to their views, gracefully to submit and to recognise the action as that of the entire organisation, and cheerfully to assist in carrying it out until they can secure its repeal.”  — Henry Martyn Robert Henry Martyn Robert was the person who, in the 1870s, created Robert’s Rules of Order as a set of parliamentary guidelines that are still used for US...

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