It is important to value people’s time and make the best use of the time available when the executive board meets.
Effective Board Meetings
Stick to the scheduled dates and times stated in the bylaws and which are published in the PTA calendar for the year.- Always start the meeting on time. Make every effort to respect other people’s time by ending the meeting at the agreed upon time.
- Prepare and send out the agenda before the meeting to provide advance notice of pending actions and to remind members of items to be prepared to discuss.
- Create an attendance list for attendees to sign or initial. Illegible writing is avoided and it helps in determining whether there is a quorum present. Think about adding a space for volunteer hours so each member can provide his/her volunteer hours on a regular basis.
- Make your agenda a working document. Try including start times for each item. For example: 6:30 Welcome, 6:35 Minutes of Previous Meeting, 6:40 Treasurer’s Report etc. Use the scheduled times to keep things moving along.
- Follow parliamentary procedure when chairing a meeting. It helps prevent people from monopolizing the discussion time and assures that control is maintained.
- Ask committee chairs to report briefly by presenting committee recommendations to the executive board. Detailed planning is done ahead of time by the committee and the executive board then approves the committee recommendation or refers the issue back to the committee for further work.
- Ensure that the secretary takes minutes at every meeting. Ask the secretary to send a draft set of minutes out no later than one week after the meeting to assure members have the opportunity to assess accuracy while recollections are fresh and to serve as a reminder of assigned tasks.
- Attach a list of action items to the minutes with expected dates for completion and the person responsible to serve as a reminder to all of the expectations and responsibilities undertaken.
