Built around their world, not yours
When you respect their time, advisors notice. When you don’t, they remember.
Every scheduling decision sends a message. Members of an advisory board aren’t paid to attend it — they have their own clients, their own deadlines, their own busy season. Whether an organization understands that shows up in the calendar, whether anyone says it out loud or not.
When you respect their time, advisors notice. When you don’t, they remember.
None of this requires guesswork. Three things, in particular, are worth building the calendar around:
Their quarter-end — the weeks surrounding it are often off-limits, whatever the industry — that’s when members are buried in their own client reporting, not available for anyone else’s agenda.
Their busy season — enrollment periods, proposal deadlines, renewal cycles — whatever creates a predictable surge in their world, not yours.
Their industry’s own calendar — the major conferences and events specific to their profession. Competing with those is a scheduling decision, whether it was intended as one or not.
THEIR QUARTER-END
Client reporting season
THEIR BUSY SEASON
Enrollment, proposals, renewals
THEIR INDUSTRY CALENDAR
Conferences, major events
Share early. Shape their planning.
Build the calendar around their world, not yours — and share it early enough that it actually shapes their planning, not just your own.
Twelve months out is the standard worth aiming for. Not because the date itself matters, but because it signals something: that the board was planned around the people serving on it, not slotted in wherever the host’s calendar had room.
When was the last time you asked board members what time of year actually works for them — and did their answer change anything?
This is the fourth story in a new series on what makes advisory boards and councils actually work — for the organizations that host them, and the members who serve on them.
Originally shared on LinkedIn