I am publishing a series on the desirable characteristics of board members. This is the fourth one. I have talked about four characteristics so far– playing well with others, being open minded, being brave and being committed to the cause. This week I want to talk about being punctual.
One of the big reasons for wanting board members to be punctual involves getting a quorum at meetings. The quorum is typically half of the board plus one. If there are 8 people on a board and 4 of them are at a meeting and they are waiting for one other board member before they can start the meeting …well – you can see the problem. If the board member has a reputation for being late, then the other board members might wait a long time, not being sure that whether the late board member is just late or is not coming. The other issue is, of course, if board members do show up late. If the meeting started then there will be things that have happened that you know nothing about, since you were so tardy. Are you going to waste everyone’s time by making the group go over the same information again?
Being punctual is a sign of respect for the group. People who are habitually late may not be a good choice for serving on boards.
No comments yet.