Boards Members for nonprofit/community based organizations typically meet to discuss issues, plan projects, deal with new business and elect officers and committee members. The goal of this fact sheet is to prepare board members to consider cost savings in the way they conduct their meetings.
Plan Ahead
• Schedule all meetings in advance and publish the dates.
• Minimize paper use. Use email for all communications to include notices of meetings, agendas, updates, etc.
• Develop a list serve which contains the email addresses of all board members.
• Plan your meetings in advance, whether they are monthly, quarterly, semi‐annually or annually.
• Schedule telephone conferences for Board meetings if possible. The Board Chair presides over the teleconference meeting just as he/she would at face‐to‐face meetings.
• Be sure that minutes are recorded for meetings that take place over the telephone as well as they conducted face-to-face.
• Committee meetings can also be held using the telephone conference.
Make it Real
• If you must have a face‐to‐face meeting, include some recognition ceremony to show appreciation of the members’ service.
• To make this exercise real, assume that your Board cannot meet together and that you must conduct all business and committee meetings from a distance.
• Figure out the savings you made as a group.
