If Board Meetings Are Not Going Well Then It Is The Chairs Fault
By: Debi Peverill
Tags: Governance, Board Chair, Productivity, Meetings, Agenda

The chair should make sure that the board members understand their organizations meeting expectations. Two expectations that should be set are that board members will be well prepared and act in a respectful manner. If there are no consequences for failing to prepare, or for saying things that should not be said at a meeting then the bad behaviour will continue and that will be the chairs fault.

Bad behaviour by meeting participants will reduce the effectiveness of the meeting. Examples that I have talked about in this space before include participants who are not prepared, participants who interrupt others, participants who are obnoxious and participants who do not have an open mind.

The chair of a meeting must be the one who makes sure that others are following these rules. If a participant interrupts another and the chair allows it, then the rest of the participants are emboldened to do the same thing. Chaos ensues.

If participants are not prepared for the meeting and the chair allows preparation time during the meeting, then no participants will show up for the meeting prepared. This will lead to the meetings taking longer, as reading the material will take place during the meeting. Participants will also not have considered any of the issues to be discussed at the meeting, before they arrive at the meeting. The meeting will have more “off the cuff” type comments rather than comments that come from the participant having given the issue some thought. If the issues are not complex this might work — but if the group is considering important decisions, then advance preparation for the meeting is very desirable.

The board chair is also responsible for making sure that every participant contributes their opinions during the meeting. The board chair should make sure that if a participant has not said anything, that the chair asks them if they have anything to contribute. Some people have opinions but they are not confident enough to volunteer them. If they are asked, however, they would be willing to talk, and the group is better off for hearing from them. Most meetings take place to gather the thoughts and opinions from more than one person. This is the purpose of the meeting.

What else can we blame on the chair? What about the agenda? The board chair is responsible for making sure that there is an agenda, that the agenda is not too long for the meeting duration that has been determined and that the agenda is actually followed during the meeting. The chair is responsible for gently steering the conversation so that the items on the agenda are discussed and that only the items on the agenda are discussed. Once the conversation moves into the stage that nothing new is being added, it is up to the chair to then ask people to make a motion and move on.

A skillful board chair makes all the difference in a meeting. A person who is polite yet firm and is able to keep the meeting on track is a very valuable person and will help the group achieve their goals.

If your meeting is going to be a safe space for people to contribute their opinion then you have to prohibit interruptions.

A board member needs to feel comfortable expressing their opinion without anyone talking over them or keeping them from finishing their thought. It should be made clear to every board member that they are not allowed to talk until it is their turn. The board chair has to enforce this rule. A weak chair, who allows interruptions to occur will lead to the quieter people on the board not being heard. There will be people on the board who are not loud and confident, but that does not mean that they do not hold valuable opinions. We may all be familiar with the person who does not say a lot, but when they do talk, they contribute something worthwhile.

Prohibiting interruptions will also lead to better attendance because timid board members are not going to feel bullied, so they are more likely to continue to come to meetings. A longer range result is that board members who are no feeling bullied, and feel like the board is accomplishing something are also more likely to serve for more than one term which means that you do not have to continue doing searches to find qualified candidates and you don’t incur the costs of training new board members.

If your board meeting is being held online there are better ways to control interruptions. Let’s imagine that you are holding the meeting on Zoom. There is a setting that allows the meeting host to mute all participants and to prohibit them from being able to unmute themselves. The chair should be the meeting host and in that way, the chair will have perfect control over who is speaking and whose turn it is to speak next.

Roberts’s rules of order suggest that the only reasons that are acceptable for interrupting the board member who has the floor and is speaking is on a point of privilege. This type of interruption is due to things like the board member feels that the room is hot or they are unable to hear the speaker. Other than that the board member is allowed to speak uninterrupted. Of course, we all know some board members who would talk for hours, so it is totally appropriate to set a reasonable time limit on each board members speaking time.

The board chair can also break in if he or she feels that the speaker is repeating themselves. A good phrase for a board chair to use is “Does anyone have anything new to contribute to this discussion before we move on the next agenda item?” A board chair should make it clear that if a board member agrees with what has already been said, that they do not need to take the floor just to say that. Unless of course they are asked.

And while we are talking about asking people, the board chair should keep track of who has participated and who has not. There are people who are reluctant to volunteer their opinion but if you ask them directly, they will share their thoughts.

In conclusion, an organization who makes sure that board members can speak without being interrupted will have more effective meetings, better attendance and better board retention. This will lead to the organization having a better chance to achieve its goals.