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Virtual Board Meetings: A Growing Trend in 2009
 Transitioning multi-day board and committee meetings to a sophisticated online venue is growing in popularity. According to a poll we posed during a recent Webinar for ASAE & The Center members, roughly eight percent of associations are hosting multi-day online meetings.
The trend we're seeing is that online board and committee meetings are so well received that in 2009 CommPartners will continue to expand these services. Virtual meetings enable clients to maximize meeting budgets; ensuring board members don't have to be concerned about leaving their businesses and dealing with travel-related inconveniences and expenses.
One of the keys to successful, interactive online board meetings is to include pre-meeting involvement. Board members are volunteers who are already committed to an organization's success-and they often do quite a bit of work in advance. Linking meeting objectives via pre-meeting surveys, and then building those questions and responses into the presentations given at the live online board meeting, sets the right tone, and ultimately makes the live session more valuable.
Keep in mind; people go to onsite board and committee meetings for educational content as well as networking. Virtually, attendees participate in a much more focused, structured way-in most cases the content drives the experience. However, virtual board meetings can be designed to feature all of the elements of a live event, including networking (via live communities of practice, chats, online breakout sessions).
Sample virtual board meeting room window. To read the full case study, see the Oct 2008 issue of Connecting, from our archives.
Online board, advocacy and local/national committee meetings can also include secure voting-even to the point of using Robert's Rules of Order or parliamentary procedure. Virtual microphones enable board members to voice opinions and lead live yea/nay voting.
To enhance interactivity of virtual board meetings, we also recommend remote committee chairs and executive members use Webcams to provide two-way video interaction. Adding this level of visual dynamics keeps attendees engaged and makes for a richer on-demand experience, should an organization chose to record specific sessions (or the entire board meeting) for secure, anytime-access for those who could not attend.
Post-meeting, you can use an online board-meeting environment to post handouts, bylaws amendments, resource links and post-event surveys.
For more information about how CommPartners is expanding virtual board meeting management and platforms, contact info@commpartners.com.
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