Remote board meetings have become a standard practice for modern boards, offering flexibility and efficiency for organizations of all sizes. Whether your board members are distributed across different locations or you’re adapting to evolving work preferences, knowing how to conduct remote board meetings effectively is essential for maintaining strong board governance.
Many organizations are choosing virtual meeting technologies to connect with board members and shareholders while staying compliant with bylaws and regulations. The right approach combines proper technology, clear protocols, and best practices to ensure your remote meetings are just as productive as in person meetings.
If you’re wondering how to take your board and annual meetings online, read on. In this post, we’ve included:
- Remote board meeting benefits and challenges
- A step-by-step guide to prepare for remote board meetings, including a discussion of the technology needed
- Best practices to follow during the course of your evaluation and during your online meeting
- Special considerations for holding remote annual meetings.
Remote board meeting benefits and challenges
Virtual meetings offer significant advantages for board governance, but they also come with unique considerations that boards should understand before transitioning from in-person meetings.
Benefits of remote board meetings:
- Increased flexibility: Board members can join from anywhere, reducing travel time and costs
- Improved attendance: Remote meetings often see higher participation rates, as meeting attendees can join despite scheduling conflicts
- Enhanced documentation: Digital platforms make it easier to track decisions and maintain detailed records
- Broader talent pool: Organizations can recruit board members regardless of geographic location
Common challenges to address:
- Technology barriers: Not all board members may be comfortable with virtual meeting platforms
- Reduced interpersonal connection: Body language and side conversations that occur naturally in person meetings may be lost
- Security concerns: Protecting confidential board information requires robust board meeting software and protocols
- Engagement difficulties: Keeping meeting attendees focused and participating can require more intentional effort
Understanding these trade-offs helps boards develop strategies to maximize the benefits while mitigating the challenges of remote meetings.
7 steps for effective remote board meeting preparation
1. Check the laws
All board meetings require extensive preparation, but this is especially true for remote board meetings. The first step you’ll have to take is to check your governing laws, articles of incorporation, and bylaws to ensure that your board is permitted to hold virtual board meetings.
Pay particular attention to whether your bylaws state that board members must be physically present in order to constitute a quorum. If it does, file an amendment to have this bylaw changed to accommodate virtual board meetings.
2. Choose a video conferencing technology
There are a number of reliable online conferencing solutions available on the market. If you have the time, test out several of them to determine which will work best for your board.
Make sure that your chosen platform will support your expected number of attendees. You may also want to consider functionality such as the ability to configure the meeting to mute or unmute participants upon entry, the ability to join via phone and/or computer, and chat features.
3. Leverage board management software
Let’s be very clear – board management software is not video conferencing software, and it’s not meant as a replacement. Rather, it works in tandem with your video conferencing software to enable efficient board meeting preparation, and is purpose-made for boards.
Board management software facilitates both remote and in-person board meetings with solutions that allow you to create and distribute board packets in a secure and timely way. In fact, you can create meeting invitations, track meeting attendance, develop agendas and minutes, and conduct essential board processes, like voting, all from one location. User permissions and internal controls ensure that board members only see what they are meant to see.
With a board portal, materials no longer have to be distributed around the board table. Rather, they are securely stored in one centralized place online that is accessible via desktop or mobile device. This makes it easy for board members to access board materials and review documents in advance of the meeting. Board portal software also allows directors to annotate their board packets, collaborate with others, and communicate from within the software, ending the endless swirls of emails that most boards are all too familiar with.
Many board portal providers also offer comprehensive and personalized 24/7 support to assist customers in times of need, and their support staff can even be made available during critical board meetings.
“Using Aprio is just good governance. It’s reliable and meets all our needs. Any problems I encounter are resolved quickly by someone I know personally, often within 30 minutes. Aprio offers excellent customer service and is always improving and listening to their customers.” – Laura Pink, Executive Assistant, The Sterling Hall School
Special note: don’t compromise on board information security
Despite the claims, not all information management systems, including board portal software, offer the same data protection. When comparing your options, it’s worth evaluating data security very closely.
The challenge with security is the complexity of board communication. When choosing board collaboration tools, you need to consider the end-to-end activities of board members, as they access, review, and communicate remotely.
Evaluate whether your chosen board information management system offers these five security-focused features to keep your data safe:
- Encryption during transit and at rest
- Ability to restrict downloads if required
- Easy, secure forum for shared notes (e.g., annotations within a portal)
- Easy, secure way to record decisions (e.g., survey tool)
- Ability to clear data remotely, if a device is lost or stolen.
4. Send remote board meeting invitation & instructions
Once you’ve confirmed that you’ve got the “all clear” to hold a remote board meeting, and you’ve selected the technology you’ll use, send the board meeting notice and start board meeting preparations as you normally would. When scheduling the time for the meeting, pay particular attention to time zones, particularly if you have board members joining from different countries and/or provinces or states.
In your meeting notice, make sure to emphasize that this particular meeting will be held online, and provide attendees with detailed instructions on the options that they have to join, as well as any meeting links or phone numbers that they’ll need. Enforce a strict starting time for the meeting and suggest that board members join the meeting early in order to work through any technical difficulties that they may have.
If you have any other expectations for attendees, such as to use video or mute themselves when not speaking, make them aware of those now. You should also continue to reinforce these expectations in future communications and at the start of the meeting.
Finally, ensure that all attendees know to come prepared, as they would for any other board meeting. Encourage them to review their board packages online in the board management software.
6. Develop a contingency plan
No matter how much you plan, sometimes things don’t go as expected. Technology can fail, and the difference between a minor hiccup and a failed meeting often comes down to having solid contingency plans in place.
Essential backup plans for remote meetings:
Multiple connection options: Ensure all meeting attendees have phone dial-in numbers in addition to video links. If someone’s internet fails, they can still participate by phone.
Alternative platforms ready: Have a backup video conferencing solution identified and tested. If your primary platform experiences an outage, you can quickly pivot.
Clear communication protocols: Establish how you’ll communicate if the main platform fails. This might be a group text, email chain, or secondary messaging platform.
Distributed materials: Don’t rely solely on screen sharing. Ensure all board members have access to meeting materials through your board management software before the meeting starts. If video fails, they can still follow along.
Training and support: Train both speakers and a few of your staff in preparation for the meeting. Educate speakers on how to share their screen and use the conferencing technology. Have support staff ready to deal with technical questions from board members as they join the meeting and during the call.
During-meeting contingencies:
- If a board member drops off, continue the meeting while someone reaches out via phone or text
- If multiple members experience issues, pause briefly rather than trying to power through
- If the chair loses connection, have a predetermined backup facilitator ready to step in
- If quorum is lost due to technical issues, document the interruption and have a plan to reconvene
After any technical difficulty, document what happened and how it was resolved. This helps you manage meetings better in future meetings and refine your contingency plans.
Check with your technology providers—some board meeting software providers offer technical support during meetings, which can be a valuable safety net for critical board decisions.
7. Test, test, test
A critical step for any online board meeting is to make sure you test the technology beforehand to make sure that everything works as you’d expect. Run a practice run with your presenters if needed.
On the big day, have the board chair, CEO, speakers, and presenters log in early to make sure everything is in order. Test the sound and video before the meeting begins, and have support staff online and ready to help.
Best practices for running effective remote board meetings
During your remote board meeting, there are a few things that you should keep in mind to keep things running smoothly.
Re-state expectations at the beginning of the meeting
Use the first few moments of your meeting to set expectations and set a few “housekeeping” rules. Ask speakers to speak one at a time, to mute themselves when not speaking, and to identify themselves each time they speak. Not only will this help to prevent attendees from speaking over one another, it will also help the person taking meeting minutes.
If you are recording the meeting, make sure you also let attendees know beforehand.
Ensure board chair’s role is clear
The board chair’s role, in any board meeting, is central to ensure good meeting engagement. However, their role is even more crucial when board meetings go online.
Board chairs need to be extra observant during remote board meetings to ensure that everyone is included and has a chance to participate. This can be especially tricky given that there will be fewer and sometimes no visual signals from board members.
The board chair should develop a strategy to promote board engagement. He or she may wish to more actively call on attendees to share their thoughts. Beyond the virtual boardroom, consider using board management software as an additional way for directors to ask questions and raise concerns. Votes can also be held online in board portal platforms, allowing a consensus to be found on time-sensitive issues quickly and efficiently.
Ensuring board engagement and participation during remote meetings
One of the biggest challenges in virtual meetings is maintaining the same level of engagement you’d experience in person meetings. Here’s how to encourage board members to stay actively involved.
Strategies to encourage participation
Design interactive agendas: Break long presentations into shorter segments with discussion opportunities. Pose questions throughout rather than saving all discussion for the end.
Use polling and surveys: Real-time polls through your board meeting software can gauge opinions quickly and ensure every voice is heard, even from quieter board members.
Rotate facilitators: Don’t let the chair carry the entire burden. Assign different board members to lead specific agenda items, which increases ownership and engagement.
Create breakout opportunities: For larger boards, consider using breakout rooms for committee work or smaller group discussions, then reconvene to share insights.
Leverage pre-meeting collaboration: Use your board portal’s annotation and commenting features to encourage board members to review materials and share initial thoughts before the meeting. This makes the actual meeting time more productive and ensures everyone arrives prepared.
Schedule strategically: Pay attention to time zones and schedule future meetings at times that work across your board’s geography. Consider rotating meeting times if board members span multiple continents.
Follow up between meetings: Don’t let engagement drop between meetings. Use your board meeting software to maintain communication, share updates, and keep momentum on key initiatives.
Remember that encouraging board members to participate actively in virtual meetings often requires more intentional facilitation than in person meetings, but the investment pays off in better decisions and stronger board cohesion.
Recording minutes and follow-up tips for remote meetings
Accurate documentation is crucial for board governance, and remote meetings actually offer advantages for capturing comprehensive records.
Assign a dedicated note-taker: Don’t rely on meeting attendees to multitask. Designate someone specifically responsible for minutes, whether it’s a board secretary or an administrative staff member.
Use recording features strategically: Recording virtual meetings can help ensure accuracy, but always inform meeting attendees beforehand and consider privacy implications. Recordings can help the minute-taker but should not replace properly formatted minutes.
Leverage board meeting software features: Many board portal platforms include built-in minute templates and action item tracking. These tools can automatically capture attendance, voting results, and decisions, reducing manual data entry.
Document decisions clearly: In remote meetings where visual cues may be limited, be especially clear about recording motions, votes, and outcomes. Use your platform’s voting features to create automatic records.
Capture action items in real-time: Assign owners and deadlines during the meeting itself. Many board management software solutions like Aprio allow you to create and assign tasks directly within the platform.
Distribute minutes promptly: Send draft minutes within 48 hours while the meeting is still fresh in everyone’s mind. Use your board portal to distribute for review and approval, maintaining a clear version history.
Archive systematically: Store approved minutes in your board meeting software where they’re easily searchable and accessible for future reference. This creates a comprehensive governance record that’s invaluable for compliance and institutional memory.
Effective follow-up after remote meetings is equally important. Use your board platform to track action items, send reminders about deadlines, and share progress updates.
Special considerations for remote annual meetings
Regular board meetings are one thing, but what about remote annual meetings? Here are some special considerations to keep in mind for planning and running remote annual meetings.
1. Share expectations with shareholders
It’s just as important to share online meeting expectations with shareholders as it is with board members. In your meeting communication, provide the same clear instructions for joining the meeting and communicate the strict starting time. Make shareholders aware of the support available before and during the meeting.
You may also want to consider formalizing some rules of conduct for shareholders. This can include how to ask questions before and during the meeting, how to keep themselves muted, etc. Reiterate these items at the beginning of your online meeting.
2. Rehearse, then rehearse again
Because of the high-profile nature of annual general meetings, rehearsing the meeting with all presenters and speakers is crucial. Consider doing more than one practice run to make sure that all organizers and speakers are confident.
3. Ensure streamlined participation
When holding remote annual meetings, it’s important that shareholders still have the same access to participate virtually as they did when attending meetings in person. Make sure there is equal opportunity to ask questions.
One best practice is to have a designated place where shareholders can ask questions ahead of the board meeting. Then, meeting organizers can also allow shareholders to ask questions using the chat functionality in their chosen video conferencing software during the meeting.
4. Establish a voting process
Holding a vote during a remote annual meeting can be met with challenges. You may want to establish a new voting protocol, where only members wishing to vote “nay” are asked to vote. With a detailed list of attendees and proxies, the results of the vote on any given motion can then be easily calculated.
5. Record and archive the meeting
It’s best practice to record and archive online annual meetings. After the meeting, post the recording somewhere public, and keep it up for one year at least.
Once the meeting concludes, consider also publishing all the questions and answers that were shared alongside the meeting recording.
Remote board meetings – get started now
Remote board meetings have evolved from a temporary solution to a permanent fixture of modern board governance. They offer a low-cost, flexible way for boards to conduct business with directors and shareholders across different locations, without compromising security or effectiveness.
When done well, virtual meetings can actually enhance board governance by:
Making it easier to manage meetings across geographic boundaries
Improving documentation and decision tracking through board meeting software
Enabling more frequent touchpoints between formal meetings
Allowing boards to respond quickly to time-sensitive matters
The key is implementing the right combination of technology, protocols, and best practices. Whether you’re conducting fully remote meetings, in person meetings, or hybrid formats, the principles of good board governance remain the same: clear communication, thorough preparation, active engagement, and proper documentation.
As you plan your next meeting and future meetings, focus on creating an experience that encourages board members to participate fully, maintains the security of confidential information, and upholds the standards of excellence your board requires.
To see how board management software can help you transition to remote board meetings, get in touch to learn more about the Aprio board portal solution, or check out our board portal buying guide.
