Board of Directors and Company Governance
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How to hold a board meeting

Your step-by-step guide to holding a board meeting on SeedLegals.

SeedLegals takes all the pain out of doing a board meeting. Just set the agenda, list documents to discuss, then use the SeedLegals to minute the meeting and document the matters you discussed and the items the board approved (or didn't approve).

This article will take you through the steps needed to set the agenda and create the Board Minutes for your next board meeting.

See this article for more tips on how to run a successful board meeting for a startup.

Before the board meeting...

Start by going to Board > Hold a Board Meeting

1. Enter the date, time and place of the meeting

You can amend these details later if needed.

2. Set the agenda

You can set the agenda of things to be discussed, a description of the items and any documents to be discussed at the meeting.

We provide a preset list of a dozen popular board items, you can add those in one click. Or, select Other to create your own freeform agenda items.

Note that if the purpose of the board meeting is to appoint or terminate a director, and you've already created the Appointment of Director (AP01) or Termination of Director (TM01) form on the platform, then these appointments and terminations will be automatically added to the agenda items, easy.

You can also upload any support documents if necessary.

Once the agenda has been set, click to save the changes.

3. Share the agenda with your fellow directors

You should share the agenda with your directors before the board meeting so that everyone is aware of the date/time and agenda, and hopefully has read to provided materials ahead of time!

Holding the Meeting

When the time of the board meeting arrives, head to Hold a Board Meeting:

1. Select the Chair and the mark any absent directors

Select who chaired the meeting. If you don't already have a chairperson now's the time to name one, and the minutes of the meeting will show that they were elected as chairperson.

Select if any director is absent, or leave that blank if every director is present.

2. Minute any discussions that take place before you got to the agenda items

In board meetings, it is common for the directors to discuss some things that were not on the agenda before they move onto the agenda. Sometimes it is useful to minute those discussions, if you'd like to minute those discussions you can do that here. If nothing was discussed before the directors moved to the agenda, just leave this section blank.

3. Review the agenda Items

Select the agenda item you're discussing as you get to each of them...

Edit your agenda items to state whether they have been Approved, Not Approved, Not Discussed, or Approval Not Needed.

You can add more details in the Notes section. If you leave this space blank the board minutes will still explain that the matter was either approved, rejected, not discussed or was not something capable of approval, but will not add any more detail.

Appointments and Terminations of directors are automatically reported as approved at the meeting.

4. Sign the Board Minutes

You will need one director to sign the Board Minutes to approve the board meeting before closing the meeting.