Board Members and Duty of Care: How Many Hours Should a Board Member Spend Preparing for Meetings?
Broc Romanek on the Harvard Corporate Governance Blog analyzes the number of hours, on average, that a board member should typically spend preparing for board meetings. He contends that about one hour of board-related reading should be done beforehand for every hour of actual attendance at a board or board-committee meeting. He calculates that to be about 200 hours per year, on average, and he explains how he arrives at that number. This, of course, argues against a busy person serving on too many boards at once. It is also useful data in connection with discussions about the duty of care required of board members.
