What is a governance committee?

A governance committee is a group of board members or other senior executives who are responsible for overseeing an organization's structure. It will typically have the following responsibilities:

Overseeing the organization's governance structure: This includes ensuring that it has a clear and effective framework in place.

Advising the board on governance matters: Providing them with advice on a variety of administrative issues such as risk management, succession planning and ethics.

Monitoring the organization's compliance with applicable laws and regulations: The committee has to ensure that the organization is following all applicable laws and regulations.

The organization's risk management program: This includes ensuring that they have a robust program in place to identify and mitigate things that could cause harm to the business.

Overseeing the organization's ethics program: Companies can’t just do anything they please. The committee will ensure they have a strong ethics program in place to promote the right behavior in everything they do - from employees to business practices.

Importance of governance committee meetings

These are important because they provide an opportunity for the committee to discuss and make decisions on a variety of administrative matters. This can help to ensure that the organization is well-governed and that it’s in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.

With the committee likely to be made up of C-Level or senior executives it can be hard to find a time to get them together. When you do, you need to make sure that your meeting is productive. Here are some tips for effectively planning a governance committee meeting:

Set a clear agenda. This should include all of the topics that need to be discussed at the meeting and ordered by priority.

Distribute the agenda in advance. This will give committee members time to prepare for the meeting and to come up with questions or comments.

Start and end the meeting on time. This shows respect for the committee members' time.

Encourage participation from all committee members. Everyone should have an opportunity to contribute to the discussion. Don’t let one person dominate the conversation.

Take notes. This will help to ensure that decisions made at the meeting are documented and acted upon.

Follow up on action items. After the meeting, make sure that any action items that were assigned are completed. A follow-up email is a good way to ensure everyone knows who is doing what.

Schedule your governance committee meetings with Doodle

Doodle is one of the world’s favorite scheduling tools, bringing millions of people together every year. 

It allows you to create a poll that asks committee members to indicate their availability for a meeting. Once you’ve created it, send it to committee members via email or a link. 

Committee members can then vote on the times they’re available. Within minutes you’ll have a time for the meeting that works for everyone.

Doodle can also send reminders, let you set deadlines and host meetings virtually - in case you can’t meet in person. So why not create your own free Doodle account today?