Challenges and Opportunities for Governance Online Meetings

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Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, people have continued to attend governance meetings on the internet. Although this can be an inconvenience for those who would prefer to be in person, it is a great opportunity for administrations to show their willingness to be responsive and engage with the community.

The main challenge is to ensure that the right technology to participate is in place with screen, voice and video sharing being important. Many companies have resorted to emailing packs of information that include attachments, or file-sharing solutions with folders that need to be downloaded, however these lack the ability to support the systematic processing of agenda items including recording and distribution of information from the past etc.

Other challenges are that it’s more difficult to engage in the casual conversations that usually accompany meetings that are held in person. However, it is an important way for people to can connect and feel comfortable with each other, and enabling this by introducing the meeting early and incorporating the opportunity for informal conversations, or even using chat functions within your virtual meeting platform for smaller groups will help in establishing the relationships that will enable solid and efficient governance.

Governance meetings can also be used to fine-tune the roles and responsibilities in case new members join the team or roles are altered or a new task is needed. This can prevent discussions taking over other meetings and enables the team to be as efficient and effective as they can be.