A Board Administrator manages all aspects of secretarial support for the Board. They usually double as the secretary or head of administrative staff for the CEO or Chairperson of the Board. 

Their role will also lead them to work closely with the Senior Leadership and Executive Committees, as well as planning organisation-wide staff events. 

What Are The Responsibilities Of a Board Administrator?

The Board Administrator is responsible for planning Board meetings. This involves:

• Organising a time that suits all participants.
• If it is an in-person meeting, finding a suitable room to host the meeting in and booking it.
• Inviting all participants.
• Ensuring all participants RSVP in a timely manner. 
• Preparing and distributing meeting agendas and Board documents with enough time for participants to read them ahead of the meetings.
• Preparing meeting minutes, ensuring they get approval and then distributing them.
• Updating all Board documents in a shared file or records area.

Planning Board meetings is not the only task of your Board Administrator! They can also have other time-consuming responsibilities such as:

• Serving as a project coordinator for the Executive Director.
• Managing projects with the Senior Leadership Team.
• Coordinating strategic planning efforts between the Board, Executive Committee and Senior Leadership Team.
• Performing all administrative tasks for the Board, Executive Committee and Senior Leadership Team.
• Maintaining relations and contact lists for all business clients.
• Planning organisation wide events - including staff parties, training and all-staff meetings.
• Preparing expense reports for the Executive Director and the Board Members. 

All these responsibilities mean that your Board Administrator is required to have administrative experience. Most organisations also request that this role is filled by someone who has project management experience as well as a familiarity with the industry.

What Are The Qualities Of a Good Board Administrator?

A Board Administrator needs to be organised at all times. This means they must prioritise a clear and established workflow. There are a lot of tasks on their plate and so they need to be able to multitask whilst still paying attention to detail. 

They should have good time management. Their multitude of responsibilities requires them to work quickly. They are also in charge of the Executive Director’s time and should be able to estimate how long a meeting should last when organising schedules.

A Board Administrator also needs to be able to delegate. The aim should be to streamline their practices as much as possible so they can focus on essential tasks. They are the manager of the administrative staff so they need to be able to manage and give the appropriate tasks to the suitable employees.

How Can Convene Help Your Board Administrator?

A Board Portal like Convene is designed to streamline your meeting processes from start to finish. 

Our pre-meeting features:

• Integrated Active Directory - so you can easily invite members to meetings. 
• Simple Agenda Builder - as simple as a drag-and-drop.
• Meeting Schedule - just one click and meeting invitations and reminders are sent out automatically.
• Board Pack Creator - again, just drag and drop documents and the Board Pack can be adjusted until the very last minute.

Our Meeting Features:

• In-Meeting Voting - with options to be both anonymous or public, the vote tally is efficient and recorded for future notice. 
• Document Annotations - Board Administrators can make their own private annotations for future reference and see other Members public annotations.
• Action Items - a follow-up meeting or note to self can be created within the meeting to focus on select issues. 
• Exclusive Laser Pointer - as the only Board Portal with a laser pointer, attention can be easily drawn to issues without having to leave a mark. 

Our post-meeting features include:

• Auto-Generated Meeting Minutes - so now your Board Administrator can focus on the discussions and questions that need to be answered.
• Document Library - all Board documents are stored securely with role-based access controls for all auditing needs.
• Review Room - the Meeting Minutes and other documents that need to be approved can be reviewed before they are added to the final Board Pack.
• Surveys - Convene helps with your annual evaluations by helping you create surveys and sends out automatic reminders before their deadline. 

Convene automates the tedious tasks so your Board Administrators can focus on their important tasks. If you would like to learn more please do not hesitate to contact us or book a free trial.