Articles written By Our Cat Herder

Company Secretary Playbook: Which Executives should attend Board Meetings?

Explore best practices on structuring board meetings and executive staff presence to balance transparency and oversight. From limiting attendees to sequencing agenda strategically and setting participation norms to optimise information flow while preserving board independence.

Company Secretary Playbook: How to Reduce the Size of Board Packs

Learn how to cut down large, bloated board packs to create focused, strategic materials that actually inform directors. Expert tips on getting board buy-in, conducting a content audit, setting a page limit, leveraging a board portal, removing granular details, distributing updates between meetings, adopting templates, spreading out recurring items, holding pre-meetings, limiting distribution, and continuously refining. Create concise board packs that enable excellent governance through engaged directors making data-driven decisions.

Action Items

Action Item Definition: An action item is a specific task or deliverable that is assigned to a designated owner during a board meeting. Action items drive accountability and ensure priorities discussed get translated into concrete next steps that can be executed after the meeting concludes. Why are action items important? Action items play an integral role in maximising the output and follow-through from board meetings. They provide clarity around who is responsible and accountable for what coming out of the meeting.

Three Essentials of Successful Meetings

Discover why successful meetings require three key elements - a clear agenda, detailed minutes, and assigned action items. Learn how these components work together to provide structure, documentation, and accountability. Find out why meetings drift without agendas to set goals, minutes to capture discussions, and concrete next steps to drive progress between sessions. Read how technology can help optimise workflows around agendas, collaborative minutes, and robust action item tracking.

Company Secretary Playbook: Effective Board Meetings

A detailed guide for company secretaries on how to effectively plan and execute board meetings. This guide emphasises the importance of strategic governance, robust board papers, action item tracking, and timely minute documentation. It also highlights the role of the company secretary in facilitating focused discussions, ensuring smooth logistics, preparing presenters, and driving continuous improvement.

7 Tips for Improving Your Golf Club's Governance

Discover 7 key strategies to enhance your golf club’s governance. From defining roles and responsibilities, fostering strong communication, regular training, using a board portal, updating policies, member engagement, to emphasising accountability. Make your golf club more efficient, transparent and effective.

A Board Portal for Independent and Catholic Schools

Bursars and Business Managers navigate a multitude of complex operations. Why Board Management Software Matters Managing a school board without the right tools in place can quickly become an exercise in frustration. Endless emails, scattered documents, lack of transparency, and missed deadlines are common issues. Board members become disengaged if the administrative burdens make participation difficult. Investing in a purpose-built system like Our Cat Herder transforms how your board functions.

A Board Portal for NFP Treasurers

The Treasurer role can be made easier with a board portal In this article, we will explore the key ways the treasurer can benefit from their board adopting Our Cat Herder to streamline board administration. Simplified Meeting Preparation One of the most time-consuming aspects of the treasurer role is preparing for board and committee meetings. This includes reviewing financial reports and statements, compiling relevant materials for the board packet, and developing appropriate commentary and recommendations on financial matters for inclusion in the agenda.

Can I Use SharePoint as a Board Portal?

Explore the pros and cons of using SharePoint as a board portal and understand why a dedicated board portal like Our Cat Herder could be a better choice.

Run a Board Meeting that's Effective and Productive

Effective board meetings are crucial to the effectiveness of the board of directors