When it’s meeting in person or by video conference, board meetings must be focused on making decisions and setting actions. The best way to accomplish this is by following some basic board meeting guidelines.

Before any formal business can be discussed, it’s important to make sure there is the quorum. This is usually outlined in a company’s bylaws and includes a call to order to confirm that there is enough people in attendance to vote.

Then, the chair should ask if any members have any corrections or changes to the minutes from the last meeting. If none are found, they can be approved in writing.

Once all the old business is settled the new business can commence. The board should go through the agenda item by item, making time for discussion and voting. It is recommended that any issues for decision should be scheduled at the beginning of the meeting. This is because it’s likely that discussions and analysis of these issues took place in previous meetings, board calls, or even one on one with directors individually.

It is important to establish clear rules for your speaking time to keep the meeting on track. Directors, for example should not speak until the speaker in front of them has finished speaking. Nobody should interrupt anyone other than the speaker, no matter how important their point is. If a topic is taking over your time, you might want to consider deferring it to the next meeting, or even arranging an interim conference so that you create and run better meetings with boarddocs can get it covered in a shorter time.