Status Update Board Meeting

If you want to avoid the catastrophe of a meeting with no ending in sight, make sure each has a structure.

Before the meeting

Schedule this meeting at least one week in advance, ideally at the end of the previous meeting when you can have everyone check their calendars together. You’ll be reviewing several reports and dashboards in this meeting.

Update the agenda with the most recent information at least 4 hours before the meeting.

It might seem obvious but a recent study showed that surprisingly, over 63% of meetings have no planned agenda. That is a giant no-no! When people walk into a meeting they need to know there is a beginning, middle, and end. It is not open-ended, and everyone understands what needs to be accomplished in the allotted time.

Add a link to the project dashboard to the agenda. This will open your project in a new tab for people to review.  Again, you’ll want to share your screen if you make updates to the project records during the meeting. Use screen sharing to let everyone follow along when you update project records in other systems during the meeting.

During the meeting

As the meeting leader, it’s your job to keep the meeting clipping along. You succeed when the conversation stays focused and the meeting ends early! You’ll also want good documentation of decisions and agreements made in the meeting.

Since your main job is running the meeting, ask one or two other people to help capture notes.  The meeting is set up so everyone can take notes, but usually, you’ll need to ask someone specifically to take note taking responsibility to make sure it happens.

After the meeting

Send out the follow-up email, which makes sure everyone gets their action items and a full report in their email, even if they couldn’t attend the meeting.

Attached Milestones

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