The Open Meetings Law is something to take seriously, but does not need to hinder your ability to be a good board. Follow these steps to make sure your board is in compliance.

1.     Review the open meeting law as a full board annually.

–    Annually print out copies of the law and read through it as a group.

–    Ensure that the senior staff of the organization participate in this exercise as well.

–    Check for understanding by asking the trustees to take the pop quiz attached here.

2.     Ask the board’s legal counsel to review your compliance with the open meeting law annually.

–    Provide the organization’s legal counsel with the agenda, minutes and your posting for the past year.

–    Ask your legal counsel to give you an answer key to the pop quiz.

3.     Have the board secretary review open meeting compliance monthly (at both the board and the committee level).

–    Ideally your board secretary could develop a simple compliance checklist and report out on this at monthly meetings.

Open Meetings Pop Quiz

How to use this document

Distribute to the full board once a year. You could pass it out at a board meeting, and ask trustees and senior staff to complete it on the spot. Then tally the results and discuss. Ideally you would have copies of the open meeting law on hand and together you could double-check your answers. You could also ask your legal counsel to give you an “answer key” prior to asking the full board to complete this exercise.