In its meeting last week, the ECFA Board of Directors approved a modification to the board meeting requirement for member organizations.

ECFA’s Standard 2 requires a minimum of two board meetings per year that are conducted at reasonably spaced intervals. The Standard 2 commentary has stipulated that at least one of the two meetings must be an in-person board meeting.

In recognition of the increasing practicality of conducting virtual board meetings, ECFA’s Board modified the Standard 2 commentary to allow members the alternative to conduct virtual board meetings, even if a member organization conducting the minimum of two board meetings a year held both of the meetings virtually.

The Standard 2 commentary continues to observe that face-to-face board meetings are always preferable. Board meetings may be conducted by means of a remote electronic communications system (including telephone conference calls, videoconferencing technology, or the Internet) but only if: (1) each person entitled to participate in the meeting consents to the meeting being held by means of that system, and (2) the system provides access to the meeting in a manner or using a method by which each person participating in the meeting can communicate concurrently with each other participant (a “meeting” by e-mail or text message does not meet this criteria).

The portion of the Standard 2 commentary reflecting the modification is shown here:

While face-to-face board meetings are always preferable, an acceptable alternative is to conduct meetings by means of a remote electronic communications system, including telephone conference calls, video-conferencing technology, or the Internet, but only if: (1) each person entitled to participate in the meeting consents to the meeting being held by means of that system, and (2) the system provides access to the meeting in a manner or using a method by which each person participating in the meeting can communicate concurrently with each other participant (a “meeting” by e-mail or text message does not meet this criteria).

Read Standard 2 in it's entirety here.