Respecting trustees begins with their meetings. Be sure that at least one important decision is made at each trustee meeting. Approving routine reports does not qualify. Trustees feel well used if something significant happens, ill used if they merely sit passively like students of old. Try to include at least one important discussion of policy at each meeting.
Trustees feel engaged when they participate in policy development to meet changing conditions.
They feel disrespected if someone else does their thinking for them. At least two or three times a year schedule a faculty or student report about something educationally significant, e.g. a departmental curriculum, college placement, a drug program, the teaching of reading, the uses of technology etc. A fifteen or twenty minute report should be followed by challenging questions, not just polite chitchat. Those reporting should talk about problems as well as successes. Trustees want the whole truth.