The Permanent Shift to Virtual and Hybrid Board Meetings
Virtual board meetings were once an emergency measure. When in-person gatherings became impossible during the pandemic, boards scrambled to adopt video conferencing, often with mixed results. But something unexpected happened: many boards discovered that virtual meetings, done well, could be just as effective as in-person sessions -- and in some cases, more so.
Today, virtual and hybrid board meetings are a permanent fixture of nonprofit governance. They allow boards to recruit directors from a wider geographic area, reduce travel time and costs, and make it easier for busy professionals to contribute their expertise without the logistical burden of attending in person.
But virtual meetings also introduce challenges. Technology can fail. Engagement is harder to maintain through a screen. Hybrid meetings, where some directors are in the room and others are dialling in, can create a two-tier experience that leaves remote participants feeling excluded.
This guide covers the practical steps you need to take to run virtual and hybrid board meetings that are productive, inclusive, and legally sound.
Legal Considerations for Virtual Board Meetings
Before you hold your first virtual board meeting, check whether your governing documents permit it. Many nonprofit constitutions and bylaws were written with in-person meetings in mind, and you may need to amend them to explicitly allow virtual attendance.
What to Check
Your constitution or bylaws. Look for provisions relating to meeting attendance, quorum, and voting. Some constitutions require physical presence for a quorum. Others are silent on the matter, which may or may not be sufficient depending on your jurisdiction.
State or territory legislation. In many jurisdictions, nonprofit legislation has been updated to allow virtual meetings, but the specific requirements vary. Some require that all directors can see and hear each other. Others require that virtual meetings be approved by a board resolution.
Your incorporation jurisdiction's rules. If your organisation is incorporated under a specific act, check the relevant regulations for any restrictions on virtual attendance.
Funder or regulator expectations. Some funders or regulators may have specific expectations about how board meetings are conducted. Check your funding agreements and reporting requirements.
Recording Virtual Attendance
When directors attend virtually, the minutes should record both the method of attendance and the fact that a quorum was achieved. For example: "Jane Smith attended via video conference. A quorum of six directors was confirmed present, with four attending in person and two attending virtually."
This level of detail protects the validity of the board's decisions if they are ever challenged.
Technology Setup for Virtual Board Meetings
Choosing a Video Conferencing Platform
The platform you choose should be reliable, easy to use, and secure. For board meetings, the essential features are:
- High-quality audio and video
- Screen sharing for presenting documents and reports
- A chat function for questions and comments
- Breakout rooms for committee or sub-group discussions
- Recording capability (if your board chooses to record meetings)
- Waiting room or lobby to control access
Popular platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet all meet these basic requirements. The best choice for your board will depend on what your directors are comfortable using and what integrates with your other tools.
Testing Before the Meeting
Technology failures during a board meeting are disruptive and avoidable. Before every virtual meeting, the meeting host should test the connection, screen sharing, and any presentation materials.
For directors who are less comfortable with technology, offer a brief orientation session before their first virtual meeting. Walk them through how to join the call, mute and unmute, use the chat, and access the board pack during the meeting.
Audio Quality Matters More Than Video
Poor audio is the single biggest barrier to effective virtual meetings. Directors who cannot hear clearly will disengage. Invest in good audio equipment -- even a basic headset with a built-in microphone is a significant improvement over a laptop's built-in microphone and speakers.
Encourage all directors to use headphones or earbuds to eliminate echo and feedback. And remind participants to mute themselves when they are not speaking to reduce background noise.
Backup Plans
Technology will occasionally fail. Have a backup plan in place:
- Share a dial-in phone number in case video fails
- Have the board pack accessible offline in case the internet drops
- Designate a co-host who can take over if the primary host has technical issues
- Share the chair's mobile number so directors can call if they cannot connect
Video Conferencing Etiquette for Board Meetings
Virtual meetings require a different set of social norms than in-person meetings. Establishing clear etiquette expectations helps the meeting run smoothly and ensures that all directors can participate effectively.
Camera On or Off?
There is a strong case for requiring cameras to be on during board meetings. Visual cues -- facial expressions, body language, nods of agreement -- are important for effective communication and help the chair gauge the room. A board meeting where most participants are black squares on a screen feels impersonal and makes facilitation much harder.
That said, be flexible. Directors may occasionally need to turn off their camera due to bandwidth issues, personal circumstances, or fatigue. The expectation should be cameras on by default, with grace for occasional exceptions.
Muting Discipline
All directors should mute themselves when not speaking. This eliminates background noise and makes it easier to hear the person who has the floor.
The chair or meeting host should have the ability to mute participants if background noise becomes disruptive. Most platforms offer this functionality.
Speaking Protocols
In a virtual meeting, it is harder to read the room and know when someone wants to speak. Establish a clear protocol:
- Directors can use the "raise hand" feature in the platform to indicate they wish to speak
- The chair calls on speakers in order
- Directors should state their name before speaking, particularly in larger boards
- The chat function can be used for brief comments or to flag a desire to speak
These protocols feel formal, but they prevent the awkward interruptions and talking-over that plague unstructured virtual meetings.
Screen Sharing and Presentations
When sharing a screen, share only the specific window or document, not your entire desktop. This prevents accidental exposure of notifications, emails, or other information.
Keep presentations short. The same principles that apply to in-person board meetings apply doubly to virtual ones: the board pack should be distributed in advance, reports should be taken as read, and meeting time should be used for discussion and decisions, not presentations.
Engagement Techniques for Virtual Meetings
Maintaining engagement in a virtual meeting requires more deliberate effort than in person. Directors sitting alone at their desks face more distractions -- email notifications, phone calls, household interruptions -- and the temptation to multitask is real.
Keep Meetings Shorter
Virtual meetings should generally be shorter than in-person meetings. Attention spans are shorter on screen, and fatigue sets in faster. If your in-person meetings are two hours, consider capping virtual meetings at ninety minutes.
If you have more business than ninety minutes allows, consider splitting the agenda across two shorter sessions rather than one marathon call.
Use Active Facilitation
The chair needs to be more active in a virtual meeting than in person. Call on directors by name. Ask direct questions. Use round-the-table techniques where each director shares their view in turn. These techniques keep everyone engaged and prevent the meeting from becoming a monologue by the chair or CEO.
Structured Check-Ins
Start the meeting with a brief check-in. This can be as simple as going around the virtual table and asking each director for a one-sentence update on how they are. This serves two purposes: it confirms that everyone's audio and video are working, and it establishes a sense of connection before the business begins.
Polls and Voting
Use the polling or voting features in your board management platform to make decisions more interactive. Rather than asking for a show of hands on a video call (which is awkward and hard to count), use a digital vote that records each director's response clearly.
Digital voting is also more equitable in hybrid meetings, where remote directors may feel less confident raising their hand compared to those in the room.
Breakout Rooms
For strategic discussions or brainstorming sessions, consider using breakout rooms to divide the board into smaller groups. Small groups encourage more open discussion, particularly from directors who are less comfortable speaking up in front of the full board.
After the breakout session, each group reports back to the full board. This technique is particularly effective for larger boards.
Chat Function
The chat function is a useful supplement to verbal discussion. Directors can use it to ask clarifying questions, share links or references, or flag that they wish to speak. The chair or secretary should monitor the chat and weave relevant points into the discussion.
However, the chat should not become a parallel conversation that distracts from the main discussion. Set expectations about how the chat should be used.
Voting Remotely
Voting in a virtual meeting raises practical and legal questions that boards need to address.
Ensuring Vote Integrity
When directors vote remotely, there must be a clear process for recording each director's vote. A verbal roll call, where the chair asks each director to state their vote, is the most straightforward approach.
For more formal or sensitive votes, use a digital voting tool that records each director's vote with a timestamp. This creates an unambiguous record that can withstand scrutiny.
Secret Ballots
Some decisions, such as the election of officers or the removal of a director, may require a secret ballot. Most video conferencing platforms do not offer true secret ballot functionality. In these cases, use a separate polling tool that allows anonymous voting, or consider deferring the vote to a secure digital platform.
Proxy Voting
Check whether your constitution allows proxy voting and, if so, under what conditions. Proxy voting is less common in board meetings than in general meetings, but if it is permitted, ensure that the proxy is properly documented and that the proxy holder understands the director's instructions.
Hybrid Meeting Challenges and Solutions
Hybrid meetings, where some directors are in the room and others are participating virtually, are the most difficult format to get right. The risk is that remote participants become second-class attendees -- unable to hear clearly, struggling to see the room, and left out of side conversations.
The Fundamental Problem
In a hybrid meeting, the dynamics naturally favour those in the room. In-person directors can make eye contact, read body language, and have quick exchanges that remote participants miss. The audio in the room may not carry clearly to remote participants, particularly if directors speak softly or turn away from the microphone.
Technology Solutions
Invest in a good conference speaker and microphone. The built-in microphone on a laptop is not sufficient for a room full of people. A dedicated conference speaker, positioned centrally, ensures that remote participants can hear everyone in the room.
Use a wide-angle camera. Position a camera that shows the full room, so remote participants can see who is speaking and pick up on visual cues.
Consider a dedicated screen for remote participants. Display the remote participants on a large screen in the meeting room, at eye level, so that in-person directors can see them easily. This helps remote participants feel like they are in the room rather than watching from the outside.
Use a single platform for documents. All directors, whether in the room or remote, should access the board pack through the same digital platform. This ensures everyone is literally on the same page. A board pack tool provides a consistent experience regardless of how a director is attending.
Facilitation Adjustments
The chair must make a conscious effort to include remote participants. This means:
- Checking in with remote directors regularly during discussion
- Asking remote directors to speak first on contentious items, before the room dominates the conversation
- Repeating any comments made in the room that may not have been picked up by the microphone
- Using the chat or raise-hand function to manage the speaking order rather than relying on visual cues that remote participants cannot see
Consider Fully Virtual Days
Some boards adopt a mixed approach: most meetings are held in person, but one or two meetings per year are conducted entirely online. This gives all directors the experience of participating virtually and helps the board develop the skills and norms needed for effective remote participation.
It also signals that virtual participation is valued, not just tolerated.
Document Sharing for Virtual and Hybrid Meetings
Before the Meeting
Distribute the board pack digitally, at least seven days before the meeting. Use a secure platform that allows directors to access the materials from any device. Emailing large PDF attachments is unreliable -- files get lost in inboxes, versions get confused, and there is no way to track who has read the materials.
A purpose-built board pack platform solves these problems by providing a single, secure location for all meeting materials, with read tracking and version control.
During the Meeting
When discussing a specific document during the meeting, share it on screen so that all participants, both in-room and remote, can see the same thing. For hybrid meetings, display the document on a screen in the room and share it simultaneously through the video conferencing platform.
Do not assume that directors have the board pack open in front of them. Refer to specific page numbers or section headings to help everyone follow along.
After the Meeting
Distribute the draft minutes within 48 hours of the meeting. Include a summary of decisions made, action items with owners and deadlines, and any documents that were tabled or distributed during the meeting.
Use a meeting minutes tool to draft, review, and approve minutes in a single workflow, with a permanent archive that is accessible to all directors.
Building an Inclusive Virtual Meeting Culture
Accommodate Different Time Zones
If your directors span multiple time zones, rotate meeting times so that no single group is always meeting at an inconvenient hour. Alternatively, settle on a time that is reasonable for all participants, even if it is not ideal for anyone.
Support Directors with Accessibility Needs
Virtual meetings offer opportunities to improve accessibility. Closed captioning, available on most video conferencing platforms, helps directors who are hard of hearing. Screen readers can access digital board packs. And the ability to join from home removes physical accessibility barriers.
Ask directors about their accessibility needs and adjust your technology and processes accordingly.
Create Space for Informal Connection
One of the things lost in virtual meetings is the informal conversation that happens before and after the meeting -- the coffee chat, the corridor exchange, the casual check-in. These interactions build trust and strengthen board cohesion.
Replicate this in a virtual setting by opening the meeting room ten minutes early for informal conversation, or by scheduling a brief social activity at the start of the meeting. Some boards hold a virtual coffee catch-up quarterly, separate from the formal meeting, to maintain personal connections.
Compliance and Record-Keeping for Virtual Meetings
Meeting Records
The same governance standards apply to virtual meetings as to in-person meetings. Minutes must record attendance (including method of attendance), quorum confirmation, conflicts of interest, decisions, vote outcomes, and action items.
If the meeting is recorded, clarify the purpose of the recording and how it will be stored and accessed. Recordings should supplement, not replace, written minutes. Be aware that some directors may be less candid if they know the meeting is being recorded.
Document Retention
Store all meeting-related documents -- agendas, board packs, minutes, and recordings -- in a secure, centralised location with appropriate access controls. A compliance-focused governance platform ensures that your records are complete, organised, and available for audit.
Data Security
Virtual meetings introduce data security considerations that do not apply to in-person meetings. Use password-protected meeting rooms, enable waiting rooms to prevent uninvited access, and remind directors not to share meeting links publicly.
Board packs and other sensitive documents should be shared through a secure platform, not via unencrypted email. End-to-end encryption, access controls, and audit trails are essential features for any board management tool.
Making Virtual Meetings Work Long-Term
Virtual and hybrid board meetings are not a temporary compromise. They are a governance tool that, when used well, can make your board more effective, more diverse, and more resilient.
The keys to long-term success are: invest in reliable technology, establish clear norms and expectations, facilitate actively to maintain engagement, and treat virtual participants as full and equal members of the board.
Review your virtual meeting practices at least once a year. Ask directors for feedback. Experiment with different formats. And keep refining your approach as technology and best practice evolve.
For a comprehensive governance platform that supports virtual and hybrid board meetings, from agenda building and board pack distribution to voting and action tracking, explore what NFPHub can offer your organisation.