Written by Allison Howe

Board meetings are a necessary part of getting nonprofit work done.  Many board members and Executive Director/CEOs will tell you getting board members to attend, and keep their cameras on, can be a huge feat. How do you go from boring to engaging board meetings?

Whatever role you are in,NonProfitConnect has some suggestions for adding a little life to a bland board meeting:

  • Try to meet in person, at least some of the time
    • Yes, we have many busy people on boards and yes, it is so much easier just to get on a zoom call. However, not only do you miss out on developing relationships that lead to the board building trust, but remote meetings make it too easy for people to not be present.  If people must participate virtually, the Board Chair should make it clear that cameras should be on, not to be authoritarian, but because presumably board members serve on the board to contribute their unique insights and they get lost when people are multi-tasking. Why not compromise and implement a hybrid solution? Like the NPC board, your board can meet in person every other meeting.
  • If necessary, break up into smaller groups

Set up your agenda ahead of time with the idea to spend some of your meeting time to break out into smaller groups for discussions and come back together so attendees get to connect with one another. This helps to ensure every voice is heard.It is hard to stay disengaged when you are having a conversation with just a few other people.

  • Have strategic conversations
    • If your board meetings consist mainly of listening to the Executive Director/CEO and senior staff report out about what they have done since the last meeting, you are missing out on tapping into your board’s full potential. You can address this by having a “consent agenda”- send out all the reporting in advance for board members to read (this only works if they read it so do not make reports too overburdensome). Approve the reports in the first 10 minutes of the meeting and you are freed up to talk about all the other important things!
    • Some topics to add to your conversations include:
      1. What strategic questions do you want to consider?
      2. Which partnerships are most important for the organization and how can the board help to develop them?
      3. How can we build a more resilient funding model?
  • Give board members ways to contribute
    • There are many creative ways to demonstrate that you are hearing your colleagues both in-person and on the screen. I recently attended an in-person meeting where the Board Chair brought in plastic “clappers” so that we could all cheer for the many successes of their organization. It was fun, made the point about the many achievements, and gave an opportunity for everyone to give positive feedback in a new way. Another national nonprofit that rarely has the capacity to meet in person, has started using more emojis and reactions to what others are saying during board meetings.
    • For Board Chairs, it is essential that every board member contributes and sometimes that means that the Board Chair calls on quieter voices to participate in a way that is not intimidating but demonstrates wanting to hear. This is especially important as we bring in more diverse voices.
  • Reexamine your Executive Committee

Often the Executive Committee members are the most committed and in tune to what is happening with the organization. It can be very tempting to have those people make most of the key decisions–after all, it is so much easier to make a decision with five people than with 15 or 20. If other board members feel like they are not contributing and decisions have already been made before they come to a board meeting, they will become even less engaged. Additionally, excluding board members from decisions excludes them from gaining the experience they need to lead and make decisions in the future. Consider the practice of only having the Executive Committee meet in urgent situations or when handling a personnel issue with the Executive Director.

  • Lighten up!  It is ok (preferred even) to laugh!

True, being a board member is a serious commitment. But can’t we also have fun?  Have some food available. Make jokes during the discussion. Have board members share about their connection to the organization and something fun they did over the holiday. Remember, the idea is for people to want to attend meetings and to build relationships so that they can make better decisions together.

  • Mission Moment

We want board members to be community ambassadors. To do that, they need to be able to tell stories about the work being done by their nonprofit.  Give them stories! Have a check-in at every meeting where a story is shared by a staff member or by a board member. And guess what? That is why people want to be on your board anyway- to contribute and make an impact!

These are only a few suggestions, we’d love to hear from you! Please share your ideas with us! We can all learn from each other and make board meetings more engaging and have fun while we are doing this important work!