Board meeting preparation: a six-week timeline
A week-by-week timeline for a nonprofit board meeting: four weeks of preparation, the meeting, and two weeks of follow-up, with who does what.
Start four weeks before the meeting and finish two weeks after it. Settle what the meeting is for four weeks out, draft the agenda at three, collect reports at two, and send the packet a week ahead. Afterward, get the action items out within two days and the draft minutes within a week.
This is the timeline I'd hand a new executive director. Shift the days to fit your board, and check your bylaws for how much notice a meeting needs.
Four weeks before: agree on what the meeting is for
- The chair and the executive director spend half an hour picking the two or three things the board needs to decide or discuss. Everything else is a report.
- Confirm the date, the time and the place.
- Go through the action items from the last meeting. Anything unfinished goes on the agenda or gets a new date.
- Tell committee chairs and staff what you need from them, with a due date two weeks out.
Three weeks before: draft the agenda
- Put a time next to every item, and put the decisions near the top.
- Move routine items into a consent agenda.
- Send the calendar invitation if it hasn't gone, and ask for RSVPs.
Two weeks before: collect the reports
- The executive director's report, the treasurer's financial statements and the committee reports are due.
- Finish the draft minutes of the last meeting if they are still open.
- Update the numbers the board tracks, such as money raised against the year's target.
One executive director told us that chasing colleagues for comments and clarifications on the agenda is "such a pain." A due date two weeks out leaves you a week to chase before the packet has to go.
One week before: send the packet
- The chair signs off on the agenda.
- Combine the agenda, the last minutes, the reports and any background the board needs for a decision into one packet, and send directors one link. A week gives volunteers a weekend to read it.
- Say in the email what the board will be asked to decide and which items are on the consent agenda.
- Count the RSVPs against your quorum.
Three days before: check quorum
- Call or text anyone who hasn't answered. If you are going to be short, you want to know now. Our guide on meetings without a quorum covers what to do if it happens anyway.
- Ask whether anyone wants an item pulled from the consent agenda.
Meeting day
- Write the quorum number at the top of your notes and record who is present.
- For each motion, note the wording, who moved it and how the vote went.
- Before the meeting ends, read the action items back, each with a name and a date.
Within two days after: send the action items
Send each owner only their own items, in their own email. There is more on this in Board action items that survive to the next meeting.
Within a week after: draft the minutes
Aim to write them within a week, while people still remember the meeting, and send the draft to the chair. Minutes record what the board did, so they can be short. See what to leave out. The board approves them at its next meeting.
Two weeks after: check the list
Look down the action items for due dates that have passed or are close, and nudge those owners. Anything stuck gets a new date or a new owner. Two weeks before the next meeting, ask every owner for one line on where things stand.
If your board meets monthly
Shorten the lead times. Agree on the agenda two weeks out, set report deadlines a week out, and send the packet five days ahead. The follow-up steps stay the same.
How Karma Compass helps
The Free plan covers the meeting itself. Directors RSVP and open the packet from links in their email, with no account or password, and Compass tracks the replies against your quorum. It keeps one list of action items and carries anything unfinished into the next meeting. Goals are on every plan too. You set a target in a sentence, log the numbers, and the board sees actual against pace as a chart.
On the Pro plan, Compass drafts the agenda for the next meeting and the minutes from the secretary's notes. Playbooks do the reminding: one warns you when too few directors have said they are coming, and another emails action item owners before their work is due. Customers tell us Compass takes about half the staff time out of managing the board.
Questions this post answers
How far in advance should a board packet go out?
About a week before the meeting, so directors have a weekend to read it. Check your bylaws for the notice a meeting needs, which is a separate requirement.
What goes in a board packet?
The agenda, the draft minutes of the last meeting, the executive director's report, the financial statements, committee reports, and background for anything the board is being asked to decide.
Who prepares the board meeting agenda?
The chair and the executive director work it out together. In the timeline above, the executive director drafts it and the chair signs off. Your bylaws or board policies may say who does what.
How soon after a board meeting should the minutes be written?
Within a week if you can, while people remember the meeting. The board approves them at its next meeting.
When should you start preparing for a board meeting?
Four weeks ahead for a board that meets quarterly or every other month. For a monthly board, two weeks.
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