Every meeting attendee should: prepare, think powerfully, develop a point of view, show up, pay attention, and participate to increase the odds of a maximally productive session.

To facilitate so doing, meeting materials should be sent out more than 24 hours in advance in order to:

• • Give attendees with busy schedules a chance to work in the time to study the material, develop a point of view, and prepare to ask questions and give advice.

• • Give meeting leaders time to distance themselves from the preparation and to themselves step back and get ready to deal with the material top-down as board members and not as bottom-up and stuck in all the details.

That said, materials should not go out so far ahead that content is no longer up-to-date or relevant by meeting time.