The way you communicate with your Board members will heavily influence the degree to which the Board members are able to perform their role and in some cases it will also affect the degree of interaction from Board members.

Communication before Board meetings

It is likely that you will have three or four Board meetings throughout the year and these are likely to be the key interactions you have with Board members.  Whilst you may be engrossed in the detail of your work on a day to day basis it is important that you remember your Board members will dip in and out and therefore you may need to provide context to them briefly so they can understand the issues that are being discussed (a good rule is not to use acronyms in your papers and make sure everything has a brief reference point).  However there is a fine line between providing context and providing too much detail that the discussion becomes operational rather than strategic and the Board members are not clear what they are being asked to decide on. 

To get the most out of your Board meetings you should prepare an agenda before the meeting and where appropriate agenda items should have attached papers that explain the item for discussion and the action needed by the Board.  In some cases an item may be on the agenda for discussion only and no action from the Board is needed.  In other cases an item may be on the agenda because a strategic decision is required.  A good rule is to provide the Board with an agenda and a clear sense of what is required of them in relation to each item on the agenda.

It is vital that Board members receive papers in advance of the meeting.  A general standard is for Board members to receive their full set of papers (agenda plus item papers) atleast one week before the date of the meeting.  Any less time would be insufficient for a Board member to read and bring thoughts to the meeting.  Also sending through papers a few days in advance of the meeting may indicate to the Board that you are rushed and not really bothered about their input.  This could promote a negative communication culture and so being early with papers can help keep communication positive and transparent.

A further example of good communication with your Board could be the use of a CEOs report to summarise the work of the officers inbetween Board meetings. An example can be downloaded below and this can be an extremely useful tool to provide Board members with detail about the organisation they may represent externally.

In regards to communicating with your Board before Board meetings you should remember the following key points:

• Send papers atleast one week in advance;
• Highlight what is required from the Board for each agenda item;
• Ensure the agenda has a strategic focus and does not present a risk of being drawn down into a detailed discussion.

Communication after Board meetings

It is good practice to produce minutes following your Board meeting and to makesure the minutes are accurate and circulated shortly after the meeting.  A good rule would be to write minutes and circulate them within one or two weeks of the meeting.  This will help keep the Board informed and also allow them to make any amendments to the minutes while the discussion and conversatons are fresh in their minds.

It may also be useful to produce an action summary from the meetings so that Board members can use the minutes to refresh them of the full discussion but pick up on the actions out of the meeting with a quick reference table.

There are some examples below of minutes and action summaries.

Communication In-between Board Meetings

It is good practice to keep engaged with Board members in-between meetings.  It might be useful to have them meet staff to brainstorm ideas if they have specific experience that may help a staff members.  It is also useful to invite Board members to any events you are holding as this will allow them to experience what the organisation does first hand.

The downloads below indicate the formal communication that organisations have with Board members.  It is worth thinking about ways of keeping Board members engaged in an informal way.  The more the Board feel engaged with the organisation the better they will be able to perform their role.

Downloads:

Sport and Recreation Alliance.Board Minutes 20 July 2011.docx

Example of Board minutes following a Board meeting from the Sport and Recreation Alliance.

Sport and Recreation Alliance Chief Executive Report. September2011.docx

Example of a Chief Executive report that is used to update the Board at the Sport and Recreation Alliance of key work completed by staff betwee Board meetings.

BSUK.Governance Committee Minutes - 11 October-11.pdf

Example of Baseball Softball UK Governance Committee Minutes which includes an action summary at the end.