How to Move From In-Person to Virtual Board Meetings [6 Best Practices]

“Zoom fatigue” is real. Focusing on small screens not only requires greater concentration, but drains attendee energy faster than when meeting in-person. What’s more, the inherent lack of face-to-face interactions can make virtual board meetings less stimulating.

So, avoid lengthy meetings. To help attendees stay focused and engaged in a virtual meeting, schedule shorter meetings. If you need to schedule a longer meeting, break it up into smaller chunks.

Here are a few additional tips to help keep Zoom fatigue at bay:

• Break longer meetings up into 50-minute sessions with 10-minute breaks between them.
• For presentations, request that the presenter narrate the slides on video and distribute them to attendees before the virtual meeting. Narration and recording tools are available in Microsoft PowerPoint or on a multitude of free screen recording applications.
• Reduce meeting discussion time using voting and survey tools to resolve simple tasks and decisions before the meeting.

3. Develop Strong Agendas

Creating a solid board meeting agenda sets you up for success. Structure the agenda around the six stages for a board meeting (we’ll get to those later), clearly designate speakers, and establish a defined schedule for each item to help keep speakers on track and minimize prolonged discussions. Tools like OnBoard’s Agenda Builder can help make the process efficient by:

• Creating agenda templates for meetings with similar structures month-to-month or quarter-to-quarter
• Providing drag-and-drop functionality for uploading board documents in a variety of file formats
• Offering scheduling tools to designate set times for each agenda item
• Making it easy to collaborate, request board materials from responsible individuals, and share final agendas and updates with directors and other stakeholders

4. Make It Easier for Board Members and the Public to Collaborate

Because virtual meetings should be shorter but just as productive, more collaboration between board members and the public must occur outside the meeting.

• Use collaboration apps that help make pre-meeting preparation easier, such as a board book builder that will reduce prep time and ensure agendas and materials are distributed in advance.
• Use note-taking apps that allow directors and officers to keep a record of discussions and agreements. Choose an app that enables members to make notes and annotations to the board materials. Meeting leaders should highlight portions of documents that attendees should focus on in advance.
• Before the meeting, make important information available to the public as appropriate, including announcements and relevant board materials.

5. Ensure Each Attendee Has Correct & Current Materials

Nothing kills virtual meeting productivity faster than not having the most current information on hand. For virtual meetings to be effective, a centralized archive is needed that enables boards to record every decision for future consultation and reference.

• Use shared storage services that keep all board materials — current and historical — in one place, instantly accessible and searchable.
• Many organizations turn to free consumer brand solutions to create an archive. But use caution when selecting a vendor. Many of these platforms fail to offer the robust security and encryption required to meet modern compliance and risk standards.

6. Provide Board Materials in Advance

Distribute board books at least a week before the meeting date to allow adequate time for directors’ review. With robust board management software, administrators can easily publish materials, make updates, and notify board members of changes.

OnBoard also provides secure messaging, archiving, and annotations functionality so directors can share notes, review past materials, reference documents, and chat with their colleagues in advance of a meeting.

Robert’s Rules: 6 Board Meeting Stages Adapted to the Virtual Format

Many board meetings follow the tried-and-tried structure of Robert’s Rules of Order, originally published by U.S. Army Brigadier Gen. Henry M. Robert in 1876. The good news is, this tried-and-true structure can work for virtual board meetings, too. It just requires some modifications.

The following are recommendations for how best to adapt the 6-stage framework to work for virtual board meetings.

Stage 1: Call to Order

The board chair or president should set clear expectations at the start of the meeting. When using video conferencing for virtual meetings, the chair should require that all attendees keep their cameras on throughout the duration of the meeting. To help foster engagement from the start and offer a more personal approach, leaders might consider calling on individual attendees as they take roll to share an anecdote or answer an icebreaker question.

Stage 2: Reading and Approval of Minutes

With modern board management software, prior board meeting minutes can be shared and reviewed in advance of the meeting to negate the need to review them verbally during the meeting. This saves directors’ valuable time together and enables them to move expeditiously to more pressing matters.

Stage 3: Reports Are Made by Officers

This stage of the meeting provides an opportunity for updates from the treasurer, committee leaders, and other officers. Once again, sharing the reports before the meeting through a board management solution allows directors to review the information on their own in advance and facilitates more constructive discussion during the meeting.

Stage 4: Unfinished Business

As the board discusses any business carried over from the previous meeting, the chair should designate time limits for ongoing debate. OnBoard allows speakers to easily access and reference historic documents, conduct electronic voting and approvals, and record decisions. Directors and officers also can take notes and keep a reliable record of discussions.

Stage 5: New Business

Any member can bring up new business for debate and action. Since only one person can speak at a time in a virtual format, the board chair shouldn’t hesitate to call on attendees who haven’t spoken. This facilitates a more well-rounded discussion, rather than one dominated by just a few vocal members. For presentations, it helps if speakers provide a video prior to the meeting in which they narrate the slides for attendees. This saves time and allows the board to transition more quickly to the meat of the discussion.

 Stage 6: Adjournment

The chair makes the motion to conclude the meeting. In closing remarks, the chair or other officers have an opportunity to remind attendees of any necessary post-meeting follow-ups—for example, completing a board survey, collecting e-signatures, or contributing additional details, data, or materials requested during the meeting. These tasks can be completed seamlessly within a board management portal such as OnBoard, which includes a survey tool to request opinions or other information.