Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, people continue to attend governance meetings on the internet. This may be an inconvenience to those who prefer attend in person, but it’s a great way for administrations and their staff to show their commitment to the citizens.
The main challenge is to ensure that the appropriate technology to participate is in place including voice, screen and video sharing all being essential. Many organizations have turned to sending out a plethora of data with attachments or file-sharing solutions with folders that have to be downloaded, but these lack the ability to support the logical processing of agenda items including recording and distribution of historic information etc.
Other challenges include the fact that it’s more difficult to engage in informal conversations that typically accompany face-to-face meetings. However, it is one of the most effective ways to establish trust and connect with one another therefore opening the meeting earlier and providing intentional time for informal connections or using the chat functionality within your virtual meeting platform for smaller groups, can aid in building relationships that can lead to an effective and efficient governance.
Governance meetings can be used to refine roles and responsibilities when new team members are brought on, existing roles are changed or a new task is needed. This helps to avoid such discussions consuming other meetings, and allows the team to be as effective and efficient as is possible.
