Business meeting basics

Try to get consensus.

The point of business meetings is to make decisions to do things. This sounds obvious, but many boards use meetings as discussion forums rather than to make decisions. Some are no more than sounding boards to receive reports. This wastes time, and the best people eventually leave because they realize that the board is unproductive. Remember the four d's: two good, two bad:

Good: Decide and do.
Bad: Discuss and defer.

If you are not going to make a decision on something, then you shouldn’t be discussing it in a board meeting. You should have another venue for those kinds of discussions.

Clarify the role of the meeting. What is its authority of the meeting? What can it make decisions on, and what can't it? What bodies is it accountable to? (e.g. government, central office)

The chairman’s job is to get good decisions made efficiently and effectively. This includes the following:

1. Prepare the agenda well.
   This includes topics for discussion, any background information, and specific questions that need to be answered. You might need to prioritize items to make sure you get the most important or urgent business done. Do not put important items at the end of the agenda where people might rush through them and come to a poorly considered decision.
2. Circulate any necessary information or reports beforehand.
   Done far enough in advance, you can expect people to have read them and can go straight to discussion and decision-making. Try to avoid wasting time with lots of reading in meetings. Some boards must process huge amounts of information, and if individual members haven’t read it, it’s their problem.
3. Have an agenda and keep to it.
   That will prevent the meeting going off track into topics for which you have not prepared. It will also help prevent you from going too long.
4. Identify clearly the decision to be made now.
   That’s the purpose of moving motions. There’s a difference between making the perfect decision eventually and the one that can and needs to be made now.
   Decide on principles. Do not get side-tracked into discussing details of implementation in the meeting.
5. Let everybody have a fair say.
   It is basic fairness and politeness, even for those who are inarticulate, or quiet, or whose opinion is a minority one. For example, the Chairperson might ask quiet people for their opinions, or be quite tolerant of those who cannot easily express their ideas.  Besides, an opinion group will cause problems if they feel unlistened to.
6. The chair should terminate unproductive lines of discussion.
   Waffling and redundancy don’t help get decisions made.
7. Create consensus where possible.
   Most decisions should be unanimous. In cases where they aren’t, the minority voters should accept the decision and maintain board solidarity.
8. Protect people’s feelings and prevent embarrassment.
   Getting people off-side will create distrust and generate unnecessary objections. One of the greatest mistakes is to make an enemy when you could have made a friend.
9. Delegate difficult issues.
   As a general rule, don’t waste meeting time on issues that cannot be quickly decided upon. These issues are either too complex or attract emotive comment.
   Delegate the task to a board member or create a committee to research the topic and bring back a proposal for the next meeting. You should then be able to make a decision quickly. In the meantime, you may need an interim decision.
   There are some occasions when you need to fully discuss the issue in the meeting (e.g. critical issues for which there is a deadline), but to make it a habit would be a dysfunctional, crisis-to-crisis style.

Note: There is a generic set of published procedures called Roberts Rules of Order. Very good, but people often get bogged down with it. Some boards have their own set of meeting rules (called Standing orders).