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board meetings

Presentations vs Discussions

November 25, 2009 by Fred Wilson with 917 views

We've been doing our Union Square Sessions events for almost as long as our firm has been around. We pick a topic, like Hacking Eduction, that interests us and we invite about forty people to sit around a big open table and talk about the issue for four to five hours. There are no presentations. We have amazing discussions at these... [read more]

Silence Is Not The Same As Agreement

October 20, 2009 by Albert Wenger with 93 views

A while back I did a series of posts on board effectiveness. In it I wrote the following about conducting a board meeting: Actively solicit input on decisions from every board member. Some people are oddly quiet in group meetings. Don’t assume that means they are in agreement with everything that is being said. Yes, it should be the... [read more]

Bleary Eyed Investors

September 17, 2009 by Fred Wilson with 195 views

Image by fredwilson via FlickrI'm in a particular stretch of sleep deprivation this week. From Tuesday through the end of today, I will do five board meetings in three cities, do two cross country flights including one redeye. I just finished a 24 hour visit to San Francisco where I did seven meetings including two of the five board... [read more]

The Best Board Meetings

August 6, 2009 by Brad Feld with 187 views

Over the past 15 years I’ve been to thousands of board meetings.  Last week I had four; this week I have two. I’ve spent a lot of time – often during board meetings – thinking about how to make them better and more effective. Yesterday, Fred Wilson (who was at the Return Path board meeting in Boulder with me) wrote a great post... [read more]

Face-to-Face Board Meetings

August 5, 2009 by Fred Wilson with 151 views

I was talking to the Gotham Gal today about board meetings. She was talking about a board call she had participated on, and I asked, "why didn't you do the meeting face to face? "She said, "you're right, we should."In the past week, I've traveled to Ljubljana Slovenia and today to Boulder Colorado to attend board meetings. It's a lot of... [read more]

Board Effectiveness Tip #3: Board Meeting

July 6, 2009 by Albert Wenger with 1,128 views

A lot of the work of a good board takes place outside of the board meetings (see Tip #1), but the meetings are critical to overall effectiveness. It is the time when the team has the (mostly) undivided attention of the board members and when important decisions will be made (or at least influenced). 1. Schedule your board meetings well... [read more]

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