How to use the Chair’s meeting companion help sheet

Many not-for-profits have it in their DNA to shirk the limelight for accolades, and likewise, many volunteers and board members do the same. They say: we are here for the cause not the glory.

Applying for awards for inspiring work executed by the organisation, or for the impact an individual board member, staff leader or volunteer has done does not discount the commitment to the cause. Successful shortlisting and winning awards can propel a cause into the spotlight, on the coattails of the person or organisation you have nominated.

Applying for awards can take some time, just like applying for funding, but there is a positive impact to doing so. You can share the great news of shortlisting or winning on your socials, website, email signature and even an energetic email to stakeholders.

The Chair’s Meeting Companion is a single four-page working document you complete for each board meeting. It walks you through the three stages of every meeting cycle: preparation in the week before, facilitation during the meeting itself, and reflection in the 48 hours afterwards.

Most board meetings struggle for predictable reasons: the agenda was assembled without thought, papers arrived too late or in the wrong shape, conversations drifted, decisions weren’t named clearly, and tensions weren’t addressed. The Companion gives the chair a simple structure to head off each of those failures, not by adding work, but by replacing the work you’re probably already doing in your head with something written down and repeatable.

Use it for your next meeting. Adapt it after a few cycles. Make it yours.

A week before the meeting

Open Part 1. Work through the agenda check and board papers check before the agenda goes out, not after. The point is to push back early.Tthe worst time to discover a paper is unreadable is in the meeting itself. Note the two pre-meeting briefings you’ll have, with the CEO and the secretary, and what you want to land in each. Finally, take three minutes for the Director check-in: who hasn’t spoken much lately, and what might come up that you haven’t prepared for.

On the day

Bring the printed Companion (or open it on a second screen). Tick off the five opening items in your first three minutes. Refer to the facilitation phrases when you need them, they’re there precisely so you don’t have to invent words under pressure. Use the decision log table the moment a vote is taken, not after the fact. Use the parking lot for anything raised that isn’t for today then return to it deliberately at the next agenda-setting conversation.

Within 48 hours

This is the section chairs most often skip, and the one that compounds fastest. Spend 15 minutes on Part 3 while the meeting is fresh. Even one short call to someone who went quiet or pushed hard on a difficult item changes the next meeting before it starts.

Every board is different. The Companion is a starting point, not a fixed form. After two or three meetings, adapt it:

• Rename sections to match your terms. If your organisation uses “Executive Director” rather than CEO, change it. If you don’t have a secretary, use whichever role keeps your minutes and records.
• Add the items that always come up. Many boards have standing matters, fundraising updates, program reports, regulator correspondence, that belong in the agenda check.
• Cut what you never use. If the Director check-in feels unnatural after three meetings, drop it. If the parking lot stays empty, shrink it.
• Share Parts 2 and 3 with the secretary. Your decision log feeds their minutes. Your post-meeting follow-ups belong on someone’s action list.

You should start to notice:

Meetings finish on time more often because items had timings allocated and the consent agenda removed the routine drag.

Decisions are clearer in the minutes because each one was articulated as a motion before the vote.

Quieter directors contribute more because you’re noticing patterns and inviting them in by name.

Difficult conversations don’t fester because you’re following up within 48 hours, not waiting a month.

Your pre-meeting nerves drop — because the work is already done by the time the meeting starts.

Treating it as paperwork. The Companion is a thinking tool, not a compliance form. If you’re filling it in mechanically the night before, you’re missing the point. The value is in the questions, not the answers.

Skipping the post-meeting reflection. This is the section that pays back most over time and the one most often abandoned. Block fifteen minutes in your calendar within 48 hours of every meeting and treat it as non-negotiable.

Filling it in alone, always. The pre-meeting briefings and post-meeting debrief sections are best done in conversation with the CEO and secretary. The tool is most powerful when it shapes those conversations, not when it replaces them.