5.3 Running effective meetings
Caption: Painting – Warakurna Artists
- A well run meeting needs...
- The rules of the meeting
- A quorum
- Meeting minutes
To make sure good decisions are made, board meetings have to be run well.
A well run meeting needs...
Well run meetings will make your governing body more effective.
We have provided a simple set of related templates for running governing body meetings. The templates are:
- a standard agenda format
- model resolutions for the standard business of meetings
- a procedure for decision making that enables the governing body to think through key questions for each decision, including cultural issues
- a progress report on follow-up action from previous meetings
Good meetings need:
See: Resource 5.5 Template—Meeting agenda
See: Resource 5.6 Sample model resolutions
See: Resource 5.7 Template—Procedure for decision making
See: Resource 5.8 Template—Progress report on actions
The rules of the meeting
Every governing body needs rules for running its meetings—and every member should understand them. They are usually set out in an organisation’s rules of incorporation.
Some rules are for the behaviour of board members and the role of the chairperson.
Other rules spell out the formal process of how decisions should be made.
The chairperson ensures that:
- the board members take part and behave as set out in the rules of order
- every member can express their view and vote
- board discussions are inclusive, open and thorough
- how the board makes decisions is fair, relevant and of a high legal standard
- meetings are effective and orderly
An important decision-making process for meetings is ‘majority rules’. Individual board members have the right to have their say, but once a decision has been put forward (a resolution), seconded and passed by a majority of the members, it is binding.
The minority who voted against the resolution or abstained must respect and abide by the decision.
A quorum
For a board meeting or an AGM to be official there must be enough members present to make it legal. This is referred to as a quorum. The number needed changes from organisation to organisation and is usually set out in its rules.
For example, if a corporation is registered with ORIC (under the CATSI Act), a quorum must be:
The quorum must be present during the whole meeting.
If a quorum is lost during the meeting, then decisions cannot be made. People may continue to discuss issues and share information but they cannot make official decisions. So it is important that members attend meetings or give notice if they can’t attend.
It is a good idea to have a copy of the organisation’s constitution or rule book at each meeting.
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1. West Arnhem Land Shire Transitional Committee (WASTC) members at a meeting with their policies written on posters behind them.
2. At West Arnhem Land Shire Transitional Committee (WASTC) meetings there is a framed copy of their policy documents on each desk so they can be easily referred to during the meeting.
Meeting minutes
A governing body must keep minutes of all its official meetings—it’s the law. The minutes are an accurate record of the previous meeting’s discussions, decisions, recommendations and actions proposed.
Meeting minutes should:
- be accurate and be a complete record of the meeting, including the main points of decisions and discussions, and a formal record of resolution, seconding and passing the decision
- focus on the matters set out in the agenda
- reflect the board as a whole, not individual personalities or comments
- be objective and not have offensive comments or inappropriate discussion
- be consistent in format and style
- be professional by being proofread with no errors
- be readable and clearly laid out with main points highlighted so that they can be easily understood and followed by members
- be made understandable if necessary using translation or visual aides to those who cannot read English
- be properly filed and available during following meetings
- be sensitive to cultural protocols (e.g. not mentioning recently deceased people by name)
See: Resource 5.9 Template—Sample minutes
Read next: 5.4 Managing communications and information
Read previous: 5.2 Accountability: What kind, for whom, and how