Productive board meetings entail well-planned agenda, effective chairpersons, and on-task focuses which avoid extraneous issues and fruitless, time-consuming discussions. Members should understand the agenda's chief points beforehand or be prepared to make pertinent inquiries which administrators anticipate. Tips for chairpersons include keeping members informed about problems and insisting they reciprocate. Agenda building is an important superintendent task; proposed approaches vary from giving each topic its own page and recommendation rationale, to printing motions closely following recommendations, providing space for members to tabulate voting records, and including topic-related board policies, statutes, or regulations. Sources for further investigation follow. (KS)