Today we are going to look at preparing for the board meeting.

Previous posts have talked about the key elements of the Agenda, the use of an Agenda Timetable as well as the Terms of Reference for a Finance SubCommittee.  These help to plan and prepare for the board or subcommittee meeting to ensure they run efficiently. They help keep the focus on relevant organisational issues which then allows the board members to make informed decisions and discharge their responsibilities.

Prior to any board meeting taking place, the meeting papers along with the Agenda should be sent out to the board members well ahead of time. This allows the board members to read and digest the content and then to make considered and informed decisions.  The main responsibility for ensuring the meeting papers are issuedlies with the Chair of the Board in conjunction with the CEO.  For a Finance SubCommittee it may be the responsibility of the Treasurer in conjunction with the CEO or the Finance Manager depending on the size and structure of the organisation.

In some cases the constitution, a governance policy or the board charter may specifically state how long prior to the meeting the papers must be sent out and received by the board members.

It is important to know this time as technically if the papers are not sent out on time then the meeting may not be properly constituted and may not discuss motions or to approve resolutions.  While under most circumstances this is not likely to occur, there could be problems if there is a hostile board member or a board member wants to impose their power and frustrate the function of the board.