Diligent Institute's August/September 2019 survey of 198 directors revealed instructive key findings for corporate secretaries and other governance professionals on how directors prepare for board meetings and the time they devote to each of those activities.
As shown here, directors still look to management-prepared board meeting materials for information; however, they also commonly now look to other resources in preparing for these meetings, as shown here:
Pre-meeting preparation time is spent primarily (nearly 60%) on reviewing the management-prepared board materials, followed by conversing with management (11 - 12%) and other board members (8 - 9%). However, about 20% of directors' pre-meeting prep time is devoted to other information sources including review of independent information about the company, industry reports or information, and corporate governance thought leadership or best practices.
The report also includes quotes from director interviews that elaborate on their meeting preparation activities. Respondent demographics spanned organization types (47% public / 28% private / 12% NFP), industries, regions (55% North America), and company sizes.
See Diligent's release, and additional resources on our Board Meetings, Board/Governance Practices, and Corporate Secretary's Office pages. This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!