Recently I was booked in to go and meet the trustees of a charity based in the Midlands. A couple of days later the chair called me. All rather embarrassing. When he told the board what had been planned, they all told him they hadn't agreed to it at all, but thought he was just getting views. How often have people left a meeting you have taken part in, only to find out later that  there were different understandings of what they were there for? So here are some sensible guidelines to remember:

There are only three functional purposes for having a business meeting:

* To inform and bring people up to speed

* To seek input from people

* To ask for approval

Use this filter to determine why you are having the meeting and make sure that participants clearly understand the purpose of each agenda item. Clear understanding by all participants will lead to shorter better meetings.

Example: 'I want to bring you up to speed on items 1 and 2, get your input on item 3, and seek your approval regarding items 4 and 5'.

Thanks to Anthony Tjan for this helpful understanding. Now I need to go and incorporate this into my trustee governance notes - short section on charity board meetings is called for!

Do you have any helpful insights to share?

Have a good weekend. Daryl