Online board room meeting helps to reduce the need for physical meetings, and also saves on travel costs. It also offers flexibility to participants who can participate from any location. However, as with any new technology, there are challenges in implementing this tool. Board members must become comfortable with the software and have a solid knowledge of how it www.boardmgtsoft.net/the-5-most-important-steps-to-setting-up-your-nonprofits-budget/ works before they can use it correctly. They should also establish communication protocols and clear expectations.
The most difficult thing is to ensure that everyone who is remote is active participants in the discussion. In a live conference it's easy for participants to become distracted and lose their focus. Therefore, it is vital to keep them on track by making sure they hear the speaker. A clear agenda helps facilitate an efficient discussion, and stops the meeting from getting too long. Idealy, the agenda should only comprise 20 percent of the items in order to provide sufficient time for discussion. Additionally, it's important to plan the meeting outside of meals to avoid eating on camera. The chair should also request the board members to turn off the mute function when they aren't talking so that background noise isn't distracting.
Another challenge is making sure that the virtual board and conference portals work together seamlessly. A good solution will let you manage the video conference as well as the documents through a single hub. The system will also make it easier for the board to download and browse an agenda in PDF format, even if they are not online.