How to Run Effective Remote Board Meetings for Higher Education Institutions

With higher education institutions making the leap into remote board meetings that are all-in-one due to the coronavirus epidemic, it’s crucial that they take measures to ensure effective collaboration and decision-making during these crucial sessions via virtual technology. To ensure maximum board efficiency and effectiveness institutions must concentrate on three main aspects of meeting organization:

Be sure that the participants are able to join the meeting from any device or location. Utilizing a cloud-based portal for board meetings that integrates video conferencing can assist trustees to access and participate in how to run effective remote board meetings meetings from anywhere.

Create an agenda to guide your meeting. Distribute the agenda at least a week prior to the meeting date to give attendees time to go through it and create talking points. An agenda that includes time limits will help keep the attendees on the right track and prevent them from being distracted by diverging topics. Make sure you include items that aren’t on the agenda and be prepared to change the date if needed.

Create an agenda of consensus to free meetings for issues that aren’t controversial and don’t require input or input from all members. This will give you more time to dig deeper into strategic issues.

Give a clear explanation of etiquette for virtual meetings and ensure that participants turn off their microphones when they’re not speaking. This is a simple courtesy which can be a big help in reducing background noise and improving audio quality.