What you need to know about board meeting agendas

 
Your startup board plays a vital role, and quarterly meetings, at minimum, will help maintain consistent communications. The agenda for your board meeting should outline each discussion topic and provide an overview of the amount of time you plan to spend on each topic. Topics should be addressed in order of highest to lowest priority.

Often meetings will be split into two parts—with the first half focused on formal issues, and the second half is a more informal portion focusing on strategy and brainstorming.

The formal section walks through all the board governance and housekeeping items on the agenda, such as approving any stock option grants to employees or approving any outstanding directors’ resolutions.

The informal strategy section is like a workshop for the business and, in addition to the board members and observers, will usually have other attendees such as the CFO, the head of sales or the VP of product. These team members will provide an update on their department and will likely not stay for the full duration of the session. This part of the meeting is usually where the bulk of the time is spent and can take anywhere between an hour and a half to four hours.

Your legal counsel will often attend the board meeting to take minutes.

Sample board meeting agenda