Fixing the Dysfunction: Getting a Quorum at Your Board Meetings
The first in a series of seven talking about 7 common dysfunctions of a board and how to fix them.
If you consistently struggle to reach a quorum at your board meetings, the problem most likely stems from one of two issues: bad meeting time or unengaging meetings. Thankfully, you can fix either of these in a few simple ways.
If your board members cannot attend the board meetings because they have regular conflict, change the meeting time! I recommend that when you onboard new board members, you re-poll the board to make sure that you meet at a time that fits everyone’s schedule. Otherwise, you might miss out on a very good board member simply because they have a conflict on Monday afternoons at 4. From a diversity standpoint, if you want different demographics on your board, you might have to meet at a different time to fit their schedule.
If you have unengaging meetings, you need to make your meetings more consequential to your board members so they want to attend. If meetings feel like a waste of time, board members won’t make it a priority. A few strategies to do this. However, unlike changing the meeting time, these strategies will take more time to implement and see results.
Have active board committees. Often board members feel disengaged because they do not believe they can contribute to the conversation. When you assign them to a committee that fits their interests and strengths and you give that committee meaningful work, they will fully engage in that aspect of your organization’s work. Engagement in that area will naturally spill over to other areas as they learn more and become more passionate about your mission.
Create connections between board members. If board members show up to the meeting, vote on a few things and then leave, they never develop a personal connection with the others on the board. Instead, help them look forward to the meetings because they want to support your mission and they know and like the others on the board. Active committees serve as one way to create these connections as do opportunities for informal conversations before and after the meeting and social opportunities outside of the meetings.
To paraphrase Hamilton, staff should “talk less, listen more” and board members should “listen less, talk more.” Too often board meetings become BORED meetings because the agenda consists of listening to a series of reports about what the organization has done or will do interspersed with opportunities for the board to approve something that the staff has done or wants to do. You recruited your board members for their expertise and experiences – use it!
Instead of using meeting time to report on what’s happening, use written reports: an Executive Director’s report (assuming you have staff; if not, a board chair’s report) and a report from each committee that describes what occurred since the last board meeting and any discussions or decisions the board needs to make. Add those reports to the agenda, minutes from the last board meeting and financial reports and you have a board packet that you send to the board ahead of the meeting with the expectation that they read it and bring any questions.
Then I recommend that you flip the agenda. Instead of starting with reports, end with them and start by engaging your board in conversation. The flipped agenda looks something like this for a one-hour board meeting:
Icebreaker question (2 minutes): Something that gets your board members talking and lets them get to know each other as people. You can use a serious question (“Why did you join this board?”) or something more fun (“What is your favorite holiday memory?”).
Mission moment (3-5 minutes): Some connection to your mission, whether inviting a client to speak or having a staff or volunteer tell a client or program story.
Strategic question (20-30 minutes): Perhaps you face a fundraising challenge and want to get the board engaged or you want to investigate the possibility of changing location or expanding services. Give your board members the background materials needed to have an intelligent discussion and let them discuss. This becomes the heart of your meeting and helps keep them in the strategic realm rather than micromanaging (which we will discuss more in the next blog).
Old business (5-10 minutes): Circle back on anything that you tabled from a previous discussion. Depending on the scope of the conversation, this may end up as your strategic question.
Consent agenda (5-10 minutes): Vote to approve the minutes, financial reports, and committee reports, pulling out anything that needs discussion either as part of the consent agenda or as the strategic question. For example, if you have a financial issue, you will want the opportunity to discuss it in more detail as the strategic question. Ensure that you have sufficient time to answer any questions that board members have about any of the committee reports or anything else in the consent agenda.
Closed session (5 minutes): Excuse any staff so that the meeting continues with just the executive director and the board to discuss any items deemed inappropriate for the staff. This often includes compensation or personnel issues.
Executive session (5 minutes): Excuse the executive director so that only the board members meet to discuss any issues deemed inappropriate in front of the executive director. This gets the board used to working as a cohesive unit, and if an issue arises about the executive director that the board needs to discuss in an executive session, it raises fewer red flags when they call such a meeting.
As outlined, this meeting lasts less than an hour yet accomplishes so much more than most 2-hour meetings do. Obviously if serious issues arise that need longer discussion in the closed or executive sessions, the meeting will take longer. Alerting the board chair to these ahead of the meeting will ensure that the rest of the meeting moves along to allow sufficient time within the hour.
I have used this approach with two boards so far and seen board members’ engagement skyrocket. Others have told me the same thing. Try it. What do you have to lose?
