Tips From The Trenches

• Published date: 01 January 2021
• Date: 01 January 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/ban.31202

January 2021 • Volume 37, Number 5 7

DOI 10.1002/ban© 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC • All rights reserved

Tips From The Trenches

Be sure to explore—and explain—

expense reimbursement policies

The current trend of holding board meetings

virtually means many nonprofits don’t have to worry

about whether to reimburse board members for their

expenses related to meeting attendance. But if things

improve on the pandemic front, meetings held later

in 2021 may see a return to normal, and nonprofits

that are regional or national in scope will have to

decide whether—and how—to handle expenses.

According to BoardSource, a nonprofit that works

to advance sound governance principles in the phi-

lanthropy sector, charities have three main options:

• Don’t reimburse. Under this scenario, it

is understood that board members accept the

responsibility to personally absorb all the costs

associated with attending board meetings. If your

board chooses this option, BoardSource said, the

policy must be communicated to prospective board

members and any new members brought on at the

beginning of the organization’s fiscal year.

• Reimburse upon request. This option al-

lows individual board members to request reim-

bursement based on their willingness and ability

to personally shoulder the expenses, BoardSource

said. Among other things, this helps accommo-

date board members for whom service would oth-

erwise be impossible due to financial constraints.

• Reimburse expenses for all members. Under

this option, the board would cover the costs of at-

tending board meetings, pursuant to agreed-upon

caps and policies put in place to control the overall

cost, BoardSource said. Among other consider-

ations, the board would need to decide the types of

expenses to reimburse—for example, travel, lodg-

ing, dining, possibly even lost wages and/or child

care for those in lower income brackets—and the

dollar amounts that would be reimbursable.

For more tips on expense reimbursement policies,

visit https://boardsource.org. ■

Don’t ignore follow-up tasks after

board meetings

By now, most nonprofits have facilitated at least

one virtual meeting—with their staff, volunteers

or boards—during the pandemic, and can likely

look forward to having them in this manner for

the foreseeable future. Because the process is a

little more complicated than in-person meetings,

thanks to the technology involved, many organiza-

tions have invested time and resources into tech-

nology platforms and associated consultants and/

or staff who are adequately trained to facilitate a

successful meeting. What they might not be focus-

ing enough on, however, is meeting follow-up.

According to a best practices guide published by

SAE International, the timely follow-up to virtual

meetings is just as important as in-person meet-

ings. The guide lays out the following key tasks

organizations should take after a virtual meeting:

• Post or email meeting minutes as soon as

possible. Organizations should make sure the

minutes include a list of all attendees to remind

people of who was there. And the post or email

should include attachments of all material shared

during the meeting—for example, a slideshow or

similar presentation content—as well as any ma-

terial generated during the meeting.

• Provide a clear list of any action items.

The goal here is to ensure action items are de-

scribed so that the deliverable, the due date, and

the person(s) responsible are clearly understood.

Make sure virtual attendees as well as any in-per-

son attendees take part in assuming responsibil-

ity for action items, SAE says.

• Encourage additional feedback. Meeting

facilitators should request that attendees send

along any additional suggestions or comments for

ways to improve future meetings, especially with

regard to the virtual aspects of them.

• Reach out to those who were absent. Every-

one who was absent from the meeting should be

contacted by someone who was in attendance, the

guide says, and those who missed the meeting

should have the opportunity to be brought up to

speed and to ask questions about the outcome of the

meeting. They should also be polled as to why they

were unable to attend, and if they have suggestions

for ways to improve their chances of participating in

the future, such as changing meeting times.

For more information, visit https://bit.ly/

3lJn9p8. ■