Repurposed Meetings

Non-profit board meetings seem to stick very close to the standard “business meeting” format. Are they only option for boards and executives to do their work together? 

Maybe it is time to push back a little on our reliance on customary board meetings.  There are other kinds of meetings that can, and should be, incorporated into the governance calendar. Repurposing some meetings offers hope to those wanting not only to be good stewards of their organization but to grapple with the larger issues facing their communities.

Meetings with a number of agenda items go with the territory of good governance. There are a number of ideas one can adopt to improve them.^[1]Two frequently suggested improvements to traditional board meetings are the use of “consent agendas” and “performance dashboards”  A good resource on the former is this 2016 … Continue reading However, much of the work of boards is important but intrinsically undemanding and unsatisfying.^[2]In Chapter 2 of their 2005 book Governance as Leadership, Reframing the Work of Nonprofit Boards, authors Richard Chait, William Ryan and Barbara Taylor, look at downside of the work boards do at … Continue reading

Learning and Decision Making

Nonprofit governance is greatly influenced by the idea that when board members and senior executives work together they should focus on solving problems and making decisions. Board knowledge and expertise, given how boards are often composed, enables them to peer into their organization, assess and improve upon its practices, help in fundraising and keep it out of trouble. 

However, non-profits also need to create opportunities for their leadership to look outwards. They ought to have, and often crave, a sense of the broader terrain of their work and what the future may hold. This can include what are other players in the field are thinking, what organizations do complementary work and whether there are service gaps, and how can one help improve public policy? This list could be longer.

Business meetings fall short as a mechanism for broader learning.

Not Business Meetings

So, there can be board meetings, or governance meetings, that are not business meetings. By this I mean meetings, part of the annual meeting schedule, that have single themes or a particular focus. They are to explore matters that deserve more time. Far too often important bigger topics are squeezed into a normal board meeting and assigned a 30-45 minute slot on the agenda.

So, here is an idea:

if your board meets 10 times a year, set aside 2 or 3 of those meetings for special topics, not a mix of business and non-business items, and keep the other 6 as regular business meetings.^[3]If your board meets quarterly consider one of the four meetings as a day-long gathering with special topic session in the morning That is plenty.

Hardly seems revolutionary does it? Yet, boards and executive directors believe that they are expected to stick to a meeting routine that always involves the review of financial matters, committee and staff reports. It is time to get out your board calendar and see what can be changed.^[4]By governance or board calendar I mean an actual year-long plan of meeting dates, types of meeting and significant agenda items to be dealt with at each. There is a two-page resource The Board … Continue reading 

Strategic planning and board orientation

One might point to the most obvious topic for a focused board discussion: the strategic plan. Most groups do strategic planning as a stand-alone board or board-staff activity every few years. Some do this work in day-long retreats. This is a good approach so I am not suggesting that boards make strategic planning, a particular kind of process, a regular meeting discussion.^[5]On the matter of strategic planning I would make a distinction between the work of planning which requires a special meeting and reporting on progress in reaching strategic goals which would be … Continue reading

The second topic that might come to mind as special topic is “board education”. Often this means orientation of new directors or a refresher for existing ones. Board orientation is a good special meeting topic but it is usually a session designed to clarify roles and help the board with its oversight work. It is important but it is internally focused.

I think it is time for boards and executive directors move beyond strategic planning and board orientation as their only special discussions. 

Understanding the Bigger Picture

So what topics might a board insert into their meeting calendar that are important enough to push the necessary but regular business meetings aside?

One ought to start by asking the question: “What topics would we like to delve into”? So, ask people come to come to the next board meeting with some ideas. At the meeting brainstorm some topics and prioritize them.  Pick one for a special topic for a regularly scheduled but business agenda-free meeting.

Here are some of my own topic ideas:

• What are the five main emerging issues in our field and how might we respond to them?
• Our public policy environment: what has not changed, what is changing and what needs to change?
• Who are the other groups in our community who share our larger vision and what kinds of work are they doing?^[6]Having some sense of the various players in one’s field could involve a stakeholder analysis exercise. I will have a post on this topic soon but here are some ideas from the UK at Nonprofit … Continue reading
• What social (economic, environmental, health, justice) issues in our community should be, or could be, within our purview of interest as an organization and why?
• What will be our main organizational challenges over the next five years (staffing, funding, technology, staying mission focused)?

Guest Speakers and Facilitating the Discussion.

Inviting a guest speaker to help with a particular topic is often a great way to start the ball rolling on special meetings. Awhile ago I posted a piece on this exact topic. Ask your guest to come with some challenging questions. You might even consider extending to staff an invitation to the meeting.

Special topic discussions need some advance planning. Your board chair might be the perfect person to “manage” the meeting although it may be helpful if they donned their faciliator’s hat. This can be little different that their usual role at the board table.^[7]I would make a distinction between chairing and facilitation. Chairing usually involves helping a group accomplish its task most often where there is a multi-item agenda (task management) and … Continue reading 

The Sky Will Not Fall

The sky is not going to fall on your organization if you give the idea of fewer “business meetings” a chance. Indeed, it is more likely to fall if you do not make time for broader discussions. 

I caution non-profits not to try to squeeze in a leftover or urgent business item into a special topic meeting.  It will taint it. Bigger discussions require different kinds of thought processes. They need curious and even unordered minds.

There is a short-term benefit to disrupting the normal pattern of board business meetings, to repurpose some board-executive gatherings. They can help in cultivating more engaged board members. Boards so want an opportunity to discuss the larger work of their organization and the aspirations of their community.

~ A Note on the Image ~

Pictured above is an image of a boardroom table made out of “upcycled” doors. Upcycled means transforming unwanted products into higher value items. Most recycling is actually “downcycling.” You might note that the walls of the room are made out of plastic water bottles. This table was built by TerraCycle an innovative recycling company that has become a global leader in recycling hard-to-recycle waste. My thanks to them for their permission to use the image.