Boardroom INSIDER for… APRIL

BOARD MEETING MINUTES AS A POWER TOOL

At your next board of directors meeting, look around the boardroom and ask who is the most attentive, active person present.  The chair… the one who pops up with the most questions… yourself?  The real answer is – the board secretary who’s taking the minutes. 

“The minute taker is the one most tuned in to what’s going on, and has to pay constant attention,” writes Ralph Ward in the April issue of online monthly Boardroom INSIDER.  From a big public company, to a nonprofit, anywhere in the world, the secretary must be the most focused on “what the board members are saying, doing… and meaning.”

Ward suggests a board evaluation exercise; “what if every board member took their own minutes of your next meeting?”  Not only would each director have to tune in more than usual, but they’d notice hidden flaws in board procedure and operations.  Best of all, comparing their individual minutes “of what happened in the same board meeting would offer fascinating insights.”

  Also in Boardroom INSIDER for April…

“Director Commitments” policies and how they work.
Juggling your post-retirement board income.
Q&A: Is our nonprofit’s board meddling in management?

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My new Udemy Claim Your Seat in the Boardroom online course is for C-level career executives, entrepreneurs, investors, company founders, and all of you who’ve reached a career level where board service is a real potential opportunity.  Included are Q&A thought starters and “homework” projects to round out the course.  

Ralph Ward’s latest book, Board Seeker: Your Guidebook and Career Map into the Corporate Boardroom (Business Expert Press) gathers 20 years’ experience in board counseling and research to give “board wannabes” the steps and insights needed to craft a successful board search campaign.
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