Once the agenda has been confirmed the Executive team will pull together board papers for the meeting. Having a standardised board meeting paper template is important to guide the teams to provide informative and succinct material for the directors to review.
People get very focused on their own work and can lose sight that the directors may be reviewing over 30 agenda items. A good board meeting template with a guide on how to include attachments is helpful. The template should also include a draft minute or resolution, which should be one to two sentences long, summarising what the proponent is requesting of the director.
Board meeting paper content examples:
Purpose
Explain what the paper is about and what it is endeavouring to achieve. Limit the introduction to a paragraph no longer than 5 sentences. It should state why the paper is being submitted to the board.
Proposed Resolution or Draft Minute
Insert the exact wording of the proposed resolution or draft minute the board is being asked to pass. If approved without amendment, this is what will appear in the meeting minutes. The draft resolution must be clear and concise.
Background
Outline the background on what is being proposed to the Board. Provide information necessary for a proposal to be understood by a member who does not have the background knowledge of the particular matter on a day-to-day basis. Unfamiliar terminology or acronyms should be explained.
Summarise any previous Board consideration of the proposal.
If it is not possible to explain the background to a proposal in the space of one page, include attachment(s) and provide further details. The use of graphs and tables can often convey the message more effectively and in less time than text. Avoid getting into the detail unless it is necessary.
Identify any external advice / consultants / information involved in the preparation of the proposal.
Recommendation
Outline the recommendation on one page. Avoid repeating the statements made in the sections above. Recommendations should be sufficiently detailed to stand alone, i.e. to make sense without accompanying text.
Outline the options considered and explain why the preferred option was chosen. Identify the key decision-making criteria and note how each option performs against that criteria. Use a table and/or chart, if this helps communicate the point.
Issues
Strategy Implications
Explain how this proposal is aligned to the strategic business plans.
Financial Implications
Explain the financial implications of the proposal in the form of an executive summary. If the financial implications are complex include an attachment and provide further details.
This section might include comments on whether the expenditure is budgeted or unbudgeted, the proposed timing of the expenditure and cash flow implications. If a business case has been prepared for a proposal, the major financial points of the case should be summarised here.
Risk Analysis
Analyse the major risks associated with the proposal and explain how these risks will be managed. Example table format.
Legal and Compliance
Outline any legal implications of the proposal for the Board considering and approving a proposal.
Outline what KPIs and/or reporting back to the Board will occur during and after implementation.
Management Responsibility
Identify the manager who will have day to day responsibility for the proposal as well as the executive who will have overarching responsibility.
Consultation
List external stakeholders, this could be other internal departments or external consultants.
Download the free Board meeting template and Board meeting template formatting guide below:
This is awesome and succinct, thank you