Board attendance policy template

The one page described in Board attendance policy with the enforcement mechanics. A threshold you fill in, the enforcement procedure the chair follows in order, and a bylaws clause ready to paste into your next amendment.

What is in it

Page one is the policy itself. A short statement of purpose sits at the top, then a fill-in table setting the threshold: a blank for the number of consecutive misses and a blank for the share of the year, with a note that whichever a member reaches first triggers the sequence. Below it, a second table lists what counts as attendance, including the remote participation rule, with blanks for your board’s own meeting format.

The second block is titled What happens when the threshold is reached. It lays out the enforcement procedure as a numbered sequence, each step with the trigger, who acts, and a blank for the number of days allowed before the next step: the second miss triggers a call, the third triggers written notice, no change by the stated date sends the case to the governance committee, and the committee’s decision is either a resignation in writing or a declared vacancy.

The third block is the bylaws clause, in a bordered box, written out with a blank for the threshold so it can be copied directly into a bylaws amendment. A note above the box flags that the clause should be checked against your state’s nonprofit corporation statute before adoption.

Page two is the appendix. It holds the month-by-month attendance log, one row per member with columns for each meeting date, a running count against the threshold, and a notes column for the governance committee. It also carries the short phone script for the chair’s call after the second miss, written as four lines: name the fact, ask what is going on, offer the options, and confirm the next date in writing.

How to use it

1. The governance committee sets the two threshold numbers and fills them into the table on page one. Choose once for the whole board, not per member.
2. Confirm the remote participation rule matches how your board actually meets, and fill in the blank if your bylaws already say something different.
3. Copy the bylaws clause into your next amendment, after counsel has confirmed it against your state’s removal statute.
4. Start the attendance log on page two at the first meeting of the fiscal year. Whoever keeps the minutes updates it after every meeting.
5. When a member crosses the second-miss trigger, the chair uses the phone script on page two and records the date and outcome in the notes column.
6. The governance committee reviews the log on a standing quarterly agenda item, set now on the board calendar, and only opens a case when a member has actually crossed the threshold.

Keep the log for the full fiscal year and carry the running count into the next year’s page rather than starting over, so a member’s pattern across two years stays visible to the committee that has to act on it.

When not to use it

Do not adopt the self-executing bylaws clause in the same year you are seating new members recruited to change who sits on the board. Use the phone call and written notice steps on their own for a first-year cohort, without pasting in the automatic vacancy clause, until they have been through one full cycle.

Do not paste the bylaws clause in before counsel has checked it against your state’s nonprofit corporation statute. The enforcement procedure on page one works under any state’s law. The self-executing vacancy language does not.

Do not use it at all if the chair will not make the calls the procedure describes. A logged threshold nobody acts on teaches the board that the number means nothing, which is harder to undo than never having tracked it.