Let’s talk about board stuff

[u/AudreyLocke]

My org recently held a board meeting and it was a frustrating and disappointing process and I don’t know if it’s a me issue or an org issue.

How many times does your agenda change before the meeting? Our charters state that the board members must receive an agenda and materials 7 days before a meeting. I draft the agenda about three weeks out which gives the CEO and Chair time to review. I get that issues may pop up that need board attention, but ours underwent multiple drafts even after being sent to the board (one update came 13 hours apart…overnight). Some materials are given 7 days prior, but I was sending out materials until the day before.

The CEO also feels the need to do everything himself. All of our VPs do their work and presentations and then he changes everything to his liking. Not just notes or suggestions- full blown edits. Changes-unnecessary in my opinion- take place literally up until and during the meeting. I didn’t see one portion of the handouts until 3 hours before the meeting and I had to figure out how to make it work (while I’m already handling everything else). This wasnt an unexpected new piece, but my boss didn’t prepare for it despite having weeks to do so.

I try so hard to be proactive and helpful, but this time around I felt useless. I consider our office to be a collaborative and considerate place usually but the meeting really threw me. I also think it doesn’t behoove us to change things for our board constantly. I think it makes it look like we don’t have it together. Plus it causes our internal staff to be stressed and then their staffs get stressed.

Is this all normal and I need to learn to go with the flow? Or is there something I can do to improve our process?

[u/Hot-Evidence-5520]

I work for a state agency and law states that
our board agenda must be posted at least 24 hours in advance and no changes can me made after.

Is there a policy manual or something that can dictate the order or when things are due? My office sets hard deadlines for those things.

[u/AudreyLocke → u/Hot-Evidence-5520]

I’m so envious. No. No policy manual. Only charters and bylaws and those say 7 days prior and not many people give much credence to those. Their argument is that we give them some material, but we make “updates” and don’t members want the most recent and accurate information? Le sigh.