Online Committee And Board Meetings for nonprofit organizations.

Online Committee & Board Meetings

Interactive Meetings On The Internet

All nonprofit activities require meetings.

Some meetings are for recreation, some

for instruction. Some are just for socializing

and some for making decisions.

I want to focus on those meetings that involve planning and decision making. This is often the most time consuming and most disliked of all meetings. However, it is also the most necessary.

Many members of nonprofit groups, organizations, clubs, associations or ministries understand that there are a great number of hours spent planning and implementing activities that they are involved in.

Most of this time is spent traveling to the meeting and then waiting the 10 to 30 minutes for everyone to gather prior to a meeting. Results: You've spent 2 to 5 hours away from your home.

Committee Meetings

Committee meetings are made up of a core group of members in a larger organization that focus on a particular issue or function. Many of these meetings can be held online.

Let's look at a few groups that might be able to hold a meeting online.

Boy Scout Troop Committee.

Cub Scout Pack Pinewood Derby Committee

Girl Scout Cookie Sales Committee

4-H Club County Fair Show Committee

United Way Funds Allocation Committee

American Red Cross Fundraising Committee

Church Youth Committee

( Your Particular Planning Committee here )

Unless you had some paperwork to shuffle around or items that must be signed you could save yourself and your group a lot of time by having a set time of online discussions in the comfort of your home at your computer.

Board Meetings

Boards Of Directors should periodically meet

at least once a quarter, but typically meet

monthly. At these meetings, it is crucial that

a decision making quorum is met. This keeps

each nonprofit group progressively moving

forward.

It is quite possibly that your next board meeting could be conducted online.

This is especially true if you have difficulty holding a quorum or if the board members live in different parts of the country or world.

Sometimes significant decisions must be postponed because of the inability for board members to meet.

You know the routine....

Little Johnny is sick and you must be tended to.

A board member is on the road a lot with business and can't make the meeting when it was planned. If he or she is a key decision maker, then your meeting must be postponed.

One member is on several other boards and can only participate in so many each week and your board is the one that loses out.

A member has committed to you but is overloaded with commitments and his/her family has given an ultimatum about being away from home.

Some people get home late and just don't have the time to travel back out to another meeting so they just don't try. This leaves you without a quorum and everyone else who has attended must rearrange their schedules to take care of crucial business by coming back for another meeting.

Whatever the reason, internet technology can solve many of these meeting problems, as well as, the travel time that goes with them. This could potentially save many hours from just the drive time alone.

This would also be an exciting possibility for nonprofits with large Advisory Boards that never seem to get together because of the long distance problem.

Online Meeting Benefits For Nonprofits

The benefits of meeting online can be many and varied. Let me list a few that will inspire you and allow you to see the potential of online meetings. Then take some of these ideas and adapt them to your particular needs.

Let's start with...

* Your key staff and members can interact with supporter and members.

* You can conduct church functions for those who can't attend. Bible study classes, worship services using VoIP, small committee functions and more.

* Hold online board meetings and get a full quorum everytime.

* Conduct fundraising campaigns online. You can kick off your annual campaign by training your Chair, Captains, Workers all online. You can then have these same workers invite their prospect to a virtual meeting and ask for their assistance (note: this should be for regular supporters only. For potential new donors, go see them personally)

* Hold an emergency related fundraising appeal.

* Take some supporters on a virtual tour of architect plans on a new building that you'll be building with your new capital campaign program.

* Hold committee planning sessions.

* Get everyone together for emergency decision meetings.

* Make travel reduction a reality.

* Cut long distance telephone charges since all meetings will be conducted over the internet. No more expensive conference calls that are difficult to set up.

These are just a few ways to get you thinking. I'm sure you have your own online meeting ideas for your organization.

Next, we'll discuss what online services exist like Chat, VoIP, Collaborative technology and more. You'll also find some example companies and what they offer for comparison.

Collaborative Rooms -- Online Meetings Part 2