We believe an effective board meeting is where (1) informed participants, (2) focused on the right things, (3) make decisions while still awake. It takes the kind of leadership that says "no" to all the nearly-important and sets a cadence of solving the hardest challenges.
Get in TouchIn the ideal world, board members would have all the historical information about an agenda item before making a decision, but there’s no easy way to get that information nor consume it in a timely fashion prior to a meeting.
With full-time jobs, children, pets, hobbies, and traffic - board members are not taking the time to prepare before a meeting. Their roles and responsibilities are not clear and are overwhelmed with regulation, policy, laws.
As information is made easy and publicly accessible, so are all the decisions your board is making. Board Members have to learn to manage the dynamics in the board room and the public when they go home.
Your board was formed to help bring impact to your community. But processes and compliance can distract and deter your board from focusing on what's most important.
Like an oncoming train, you’ve come to expect that half the energy around board meetings will be centered on short-term problems and not around long-term, goal-oriented problem solving and decision making.