Use a Consent Agenda to Streamline Board Meetings.

"In striving for excellence and struggling to conserve time, boards are compelled to make more precise use of their energy and talent," says John Carver in Planning Better Board Meetings (Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, 1996). "The central resource in [strategic] governance is the [collective] wisdom with which board members enter the boardroom," he adds. "Eliciting this wisdom on the right issues, at the right time, and in the right form is not easy. Crowded agendas, scattered focuses of discussion, and all the familiar weaknesses of group discipline conspire against the efficient use of board energy." In my experience with associations, the consent agenda can solve …