Meetings are the central venue where boards carry out their responsibilities. A well-run meeting produces clear decisions, allows for meaningful discussion, and positions the organization for future success. A poorly run meeting wastes valuable time, frustrates participants, and can erode trust in the board. This can even lead to weak or rushed decisions that have long-lasting consequences. For the chair, meetings are the most visible part of their role, and the most impactful. This is the time when their leadership, preparation, and influence are on display. Turning limited time together into productive results is not easy, but t is at the core of what a chair must do. The effectiveness of the chair is often reflected directly in the effectiveness of the board in any given meeting.
Setting the Agenda
The chair runs the meeting. This may sound simple, but in practice it involves several responsibilities. The first and most important of these is setting the agenda. While the executive director, secretary, or vice-chair may provide support, the chair ultimately decides what gets presented to the board. The agenda shapes how the meeting unfolds, so it is critical that each item has a purpose. Items should either result in a decision, spark discussion, or provide the board with essential information.
When developing the agenda, the chair should aim to:
- Keep the focus on governance and strategic matters rather than operations
- Sequence items in ways that maintain energy and encourage engagement
- Assign time parameters to avoid meandering discussion
- Connect agenda items to the board’s workplan so nothing falls through the cracks
The agenda is also an important tool for managing board expectations. By seeing the items in advance, directors can prepare and arrive ready to contribute. In staffed organizations, the chair may not draft the background materials, but they should still shape the package. Strong chairs ensure that the materials are clear, concise, and distributed with enough time for directors to review, ideally four or five days in advance. Packages should also highlight key decision points and include questions that directors should be prepared to answer. This encourages more informed participation and reduces wasted time in the meeting itself.
Preparation and Culture
Preparation for a meeting is always important and goes beyond the agenda. The tone and culture the chair sets before and during meetings is just as important as the structure of the agenda (as discussed in The Chair and Culture). Meetings work best when the culture supports open dialogue, respect, and accountability. A chair who invests in building this culture will find meetings easier to manage and more effective.
Managing the Meeting
Once the meeting begins, the chair must guide the discussion. A nonprofit board often brings together an often (and ideally) extremely diverse mix of people who are generally strangers. Yet this group meets infrequently, rarely more than monthly, and is asked to make decisions with serious implications for the organization they govern. It is no surprise that conflict arises frequently. Disagreements are natural and can even be healthy if managed well and conflict focused on the task can be helpful (as discussed in the Chair series on Handling Conflict). However, when conflict turns personal or meetings are dominated by a few voices, effectiveness suffers. The opposite problem, disengagement, is also common and equally damaging.
So with all this complexity and the potential challenges, what can and should a chair do to be effective? The first thing is to remember the purpose of the chair, which is to enable the board to do its work well. With this in mind, there are a few key overarching principles for every chair to live by:
- The chair facilitates discussion and encourages balanced participation (see Generating Engagement at Meetings for more detail)
- The chair supports the board in finding consensus, maintaining focus, and driving outcomes
- The chair fosters respectful dissent, disagreement, and criticism, and an inclusive environment
In practice, key responsibilities during the meeting include:
- Encouraging contributions from all directors while preventing domination by one or two voices
- Supporting the board in reaching consensus while staying on track
- Welcoming dissent and criticism but keeping debate respectful and productive
- Enforcing the rules consistently so that meetings are orderly and fair
- Ensuring deliberations are thorough but also timely and to the point
- Keeping the meeting within its allotted time
- Ensuring decisions are made with good information, not incomplete background
The chair must balance two needs that can sometimes conflict: the need for efficient decision making and the need for robust discussion. Leaning too heavily in either direction weakens the board’s work. Efficiency without discussion risks poor decisions. Endless debate without structure wastes time and leaves issues unresolved. Effective chairs walk this line carefully.
Practical Tips
Here are several practices that can help a chair manage meetings well:
- Begin each meeting with a short culture statement. Remind directors of the importance of respectful dialogue, encourage full participation, and set expectations for behaviour
- Get to know board members individually. Understanding their motivations and interests helps predict where energy and conflict may arise
- Keep discussion focused. Do not be afraid to gently steer directors back to the topic at hand. Be diplomatic but firm
- Summarize discussions regularly. Reflecting back what has been said helps clarify concerns, reduce misunderstandings, and move toward decisions
- Use a speakers list to track who wants to speak. This avoids interruptions and ensures fairness
- Invite quieter members to share their views. This not only balances participation but often brings fresh insights
- Use an agenda with time parameters to keep the meeting moving and outcome oriented
- Follow up on action items. Do what has been assigned to you, and check in on others to ensure accountability
- In virtual meetings, encourage cameras on, give more space for responses, and monitor the chat actively
- Be closely attuned to potentially harmful conflict and language and do not let issues fester
- Two weeks before meetings, ask directors for suggested agenda items. This gives them a sense of ownership and helps capture emerging issues
- Use consensus processes to surface concerns and ideas, but ensure formal motions are passed according to bylaws
- Bring in Guru’s Rules as a tool to set and reinforce meeting norms and expectations
Why It Matters
Meetings may seem or even be routine, but they are where the board earns its value. Effective meetings allow directors to fulfill their duties, provide oversight, and guide strategy. Poorly run meetings waste the limited time directors have and can weaken the organization. Effective meetings are the product of preparation, structure, and active facilitation. The best meetings are fair, open, and thorough, while also being timely, orderly, and focused. As chair, your responsibility is to hold yourself to that standard and ensure that every meeting makes the most of the board’s time together and taps into the value each board member brings.
