Prohibit Interruptions at Your Meeting
By: Debi Peverill
Tags: Governance, Board, Productivity, Meetings, Committee

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 not feeling bullied, and feel like the board is accomplishing something are also more likely to serve for more than one term. This 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 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 covers 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 discussions 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.