The spread of the disease is making it harder for nonprofits to build community support and function. Many are now relying on remote meetings to make crucial decisions and ensure their existence. It can be difficult to run a remote board meeting effectively without the physical presence of all members.
A specific, clear agenda will ensure that the board meeting remote on track and focused. Engage your board members in the agenda-setting process to figure out the topics that need to be discussed. Then, send the agenda to all participants as far in advance as possible so they can prepare. This will ensure that they are aware of the topics to be discussed and they can add any topics straight from the source to the agenda ahead of time. The use of a secure board portal to distribute agenda items and other documents can also reduce security risk.
Video can improve the engagement of remote board meetings, by bringing a crucial face-to-face aspect to discussions. Video also lets participants observe the body language of others and take note of non-verbal signals like anger, frustration or boredom.
Meeting in person may be difficult to plan for busy boards that must manage numerous personal and professional commitments. With remote board meeting software, determining an appropriate time for everyone can be much more simple. Tools like SavvyCal’s free meeting polls permit you to propose multiple times for your meeting and let participants vote on the times that work best for them. This eliminates the need for back-and-forth emails, and could save you time and effort.