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A lot of nonprofit boards mistake attendance for engagement. They are not the same; attendance isn’t enought. If attendance is lacking, it’s probably not a lack of commitment of your board members; it’s probably that your meetings are pointless. Meetings exist for three reasons: social connection, change the future, or make commitments. Anything else may be in the realm of information sharing, and that should probably be an email.

Meeting attendance is a terrible measure of engagement. Showing up is not the same as being engaged.

Not long ago, I gave a short presentation at a nonprofit’s board meeting. At the end of my presentation, the board chair apologized that they only had about 60% attendance and asked me, “How do we increase board engagement?”

I asked a few questions and quickly learned that the measure this board was using for “engagement” was “how many people are attending the meeting.”

About half of the board members attended board meetings regularly. The ones who did were starting to lose enthusiasm and were getting disillusioned because of the apparent lack of commitment by the ones who were regularly absent.

This is not an uncommon situation. It’s especially visible in all-volunteer organizations. If you’ve ever been part of a volunteer-run club, or an all-volunteer board, you have probably experienced it. When people don’t show up, it feels bad for the ones who do.

This Meeting Could Have Been an Email

It’s sad but true—many board meetings could have been an email. This is because they’re often just report-outs, consisting of an Executive Director report, a fundraising update, a financial update, and a preview of upcoming events.

One board I know did it this way: The ED sent an email report a few days before the board meeting, then during the meeting he essentially read the email he’d sent out a few days before while the Secretary took it down into the minutes. Everyone then took turns congratulating the ED on a job well done. Announce date of next meeting. Adjourn.

No decisions of consequence were ever made in these meetings. No commitments were sought. No promises made or changes demanded. The whole thing was pro forma.

No wonder only half the members showed up regularly.

Solving the Wrong Problem

The board chair and the regular attendees had been trying to solve the engagement problem for a long time, and they were frustrated. Among the ideas they asked me to weigh in on:

• Should they change the meeting day and time?
• Should they recruit different people who would be more committed?
• Should they punish absences?
• Should meetings include games or education?

The real problem, however, was that the meeting itself was pointless. This was not a board meeting; it was a monthly activity report.

Everyone in this meeting said they wanted the organization to grow and expand. They saw opportunity to help a lot more people. I asked if they believed the absent people would agree with that. Unanimously, they said yes.

Then I asked how the meeting would be different if all the absent people were in the room. They perked up and said it would be good having all their thoughts and ideas and support. But I pressed. How would the meeting itself be different? What would get decided? How would the meeting change the future instead of just reflect on the past?

It turns out, not much. The ED would still read out the update, and the Secretary would take the minutes.

It slowly dawned on everyone that attendance was probably not the problem they needed to solve. Simply having more people in the room wouldn’t change anything.

Why to Have a Meeting

I’m a believer in holding regular board meetings. Shared structure helps with shared accountability. A consistent commitment is an aspirational statement that you’ll make good use of the committed time when it comes around.

But what comprises “good use of the committed time”?

Information sharing in an age of email, text, slack, and AI is not a good use of committed time. Information is best shared asynchronously and curated so that it’s received when it’s most relevant.

For sure, information can and should get shared in meetings. But don’t have a meeting if all that’s happening is sharing of information.

Meetings exist for three primary reasons:

• Social connection
  Don’t underestimate the value of social connection for a team. Board members need to work together and work with the organization staff, so having opportunities for interaction are important. Something like a holiday staff party can fill this need. So can ensuring board members attend fundraising events or other events that have another primary purpose. This gets the board members more integrated with the mission, program delivery, and staff. Segregating social connection into a scheduled meeting will end up losing its effectiveness over time, as all your board members have other social circles and don’t necessarily need your board to scratch that itch.
• Change something that requires debate or consensus
  Some things can’t be done by email and require people to interact. Boards get together to debate and vote on important changes. How will we raise and spend money? Do we adjust the mission based on what’s happening in the world? Do we expand our programs? Do we build a new building? Should we merge with another organization? Should we fire the Executive Director? If there’s no change proposed or needed, perhaps you’re in information-sharing territory and the meeting could be an email chain.
• Commit to each other publicly
  There is power in peer pressure. Being face-to-face with your group when you make a commitment, and then having to show up and account for yourself in person, can be powerful motivators… but only if there’s something meaningful at stake. Ginning up gamified commitments just to juice attendance might work for a short while, but over time commitment for the sake of having a commitment will be outed as the vanity exercise it is. People want their time and effort to matter.

If your meeting isn’t serving at least one of those things, you probably don’t need to meet. Don’t just have a meeting because a meeting is on the calendar.

If you do need to meet, then make sure at least one of those reasons will be served. Make good use of the time you’ve asked everyone to commit.

A meeting won’t be a good meeting just because everyone showed up. Attendance is not a useful metric of engagement.

Ultimately, it’s the responsibility of the meeting leader to ensure the meeting is valuable and worthwhile.

Want to Improve Your Meetings?

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