Online board meetings are an excellent way to stay in contact without putting your fellow colleagues or yourself at risk. Attendees do not have to alter their schedules or reserve an entire day for travel across time zones. This allows them greater flexibility when scheduling meetings. It also permits board members working overseas to attend despite quarantine and travel restrictions.
As with all meetings, the success of a board meeting online depends on effective preparation and clear communication. It’s important, therefore, to establish some basic rules that will ensure all board members are able to follow the conversation and remain engaged. You can ask guests who aren’t in the room to turn their phones on silent or vibrate, and remind them not to sit directly in front of windows that could cause unwelcome glare.
Another method of increasing engagement is to use video during the meeting instead of relying on audio. This will let attendees be able to see each other and better judge body speech, which is difficult to do via the phone or computer. It will also make it easier for the chair to determine who is speaking and give them the floor, particularly in the event of multiple participants.
It’s also crucial to have a secure document storage system, since boards deal with many sensitive data. A dedicated system allows administrators to establish access restrictions and permissions. It can also centralize documents in one place. It can also aid in collaboration and increase productivity between meetings by assigning tasks which are then monitored and tracked.