Board Stiff?

Let your board members do the talking. Meetings should be 70 percent board members talking and 30 percent staff talking. Use consent agendas to reduce the unimportant, routine business of the meeting.

Be sure to have at least one good discussion question prepared for the board for every meeting. And for a change, try a “fireside chat” with the executive director or development director in lieu of a regular meeting once in a while. Don’t let Roberts and his Rules of Order create a dry, passionless meeting focused on minutiae that misses the important — and exciting — issues.