The board of directors oversees the company through making decisions or establishing policies. In the majority of companies, the decisions are made with a majority vote by the entire board. Your board should be able to follow clear meeting rules and guidelines to ensure a smooth decision-making process.
The meeting rules that the majority of boards adhere to are based on Robert’s Rules of Order, an English rules book for parliamentary meetings written by American General Henry M. Robert in 1876 to prevent meetings from devolving into chaos. While the implementation of Robert’s Rules of Order may not be necessary for every board, the use of formal guidelines can help to create a framework that will ensure fair debates during a virtual or hybrid meeting in which directors could feel lost in a sea of faces displayed on a computer screen.
This includes ensuring dig this that the agenda is concise and clear. To do this, well-written board documents are required to be prepared and distributed prior the meeting to ensure that directors are ready for discussion. It’s also important to limit the amount of time devoted to routine and reports which can quickly drag the pace of a meeting.
Other rules of meetings include limiting the number of times a person can speak on the motion (two minutes) and ensuring that the speakers are relevant to the discussion in question. If a particular motion is causing heated debate or creating tension, a motion to close discussion may be suggested with two-thirds approval. To avoid unnecessary time, it is crucial that everyone respects one another and does not impede motives of the other members or uses derogatory words.