Board meetings provide a number of challenges for the chairperson. They vary from handling different personalities and ensuring everyone has a say to keeping the room energised and the directors focused. All the while, the chair has to navigate these issues and facilitate the making of good decisions that benefit the organisation. This article features seven chairing meeting skills that help chairs lead board meetings in the most effective way possible.  A strong chair is essential. The Institute of Directors states that “at all meetings the chair should direct discussions towards the emergence of a consensus view and sum up […]

These days, businesses are finding the most suitable people for their boards without the restrictions of distance between home and office. With shifts to hybrid ways of working and the rise in the use of electronic meeting software such as Zoom, Skype and Microsoft Teams, in-person board meetings are no longer a must-have. However, it’s critical to remember that many of the same rules still apply. Ultimately, each director has to fulfil their responsibilities and fiduciary duties wherever they’re voting from. This means that many of the daily tasks of the board of directors and company secretary can be managed […]

We often hear about governance in the context of corporate governance: the rules, practices and procedures that inform how a corporation, firm or business operates. However, governance also applies to local authorities and governments.  Local authorities and governments are appointed to take care of a district by problem-solving, making decisions and driving improvements – this could be a county council in a city, a municipality or even a school district. The scale of such authorities may surprise you; in the USA, for example, there are around 85,000 units of local government. Whether corporate or local, the relevant governance rules are […]

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 […]

Not only does minute taking provide an important reference point for business management in the future, looking back to find out why the board made certain decisions, but they are also a legal requirement in many cases and can be used as evidence in court proceedings. This is why many board secretaries can feel nervous about taking on this task. Robyn Bennett, who runs the Art of Minute Taking course at Victoria University in Auckland, New Zealand as well as being a minute taker herself, describes the feeling precisely:   “those of us who do [take minutes] sometimes fear the job […]