Printed board books: control the version, not the paper

A board should not ban printed board books; it should control which version gets printed and what happens to the copies. Directors who prepare on paper are usually better prepared, and a ban mostly pushes them to print from an email attachment, in an older version. The risks that matter are outdated versions, copies nobody can account for, and annotations that never reach the board office, and all three can be managed with a one-page rule.

Why do directors print the board book?

Because forty pages are tiring to read on a screen, and many people keep a better overview on paper. Paper lets a director lay two papers side by side, write in the margin and read on a train without a laptop. That is not nostalgia. It is how many experienced directors get ready, and preparation is what the board needs from them.

There is also a quieter reason: a director who has marked up a paper has usually engaged with it. If your board's biggest preparation problem is that papers are not read, as discussed in how to read a board book, taking away the reading format that works for a director is a strange place to start.

What goes wrong when a board tries to ban printing?

The director still prints, but out of sight. A ban that is not enforceable creates exactly the behaviour it was meant to prevent: papers printed from a personal email account, at a home printer or a hotel business centre, in whatever version happened to arrive first. The board then has no rule to point to, because it chose the wrong one.

A ban also tends to be applied unevenly. The chair prints, the long-serving member prints, and the new director, who tries to follow the rule, is the one who reads on a tablet and feels at a disadvantage. A rule that everyone can follow is stronger than one that only some do.

Where is the real risk with printed board books?

Each real risk is a process failure, not a paper failure. The table puts the four most common ones next to a control and an owner.

Our posts on one current board book and on the wrong PDF in the room show why the version question comes first and what happens when it is missed.

Why does it matter legally?

Board papers often contain personal data and business secrets. The Data Protection Act requires appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data (Art. 8 FADP), and printed copies fall under that as much as files do, because the Act covers any handling of personal data, whatever the means (Art. 5 let. d FADP). Directors are also liable for damage caused by breaching their duties (Art. 754 CO). Setting the organisation is a non-transferable duty of the board (Art. 716a para. 1 no. 2 CO), and in our view a clear printing rule belongs there.

None of this says that paper is forbidden. It says the board should be able to show that it thought about the question and decided it. A written rule, a version marker on each page and a record of who received which confidential paper are what that looks like in practice. Whether a particular paper needs stricter handling is a question for your lawyer or data protection adviser.

What does a sensible printing policy say?

One page is enough. This is the content we suggest, as a numbered list a board can adopt as it stands or adapt.

1. Print only from the board portal or from the board office, never from email attachments.
2. Print only after the board book is locked, so the printed version is the version discussed.
3. Every printed page carries the version and date; every printed confidential paper carries the director's name.
4. No printing of confidential papers in public places or on shared devices that others can access.
5. After the meeting, return or destroy printed copies of papers marked confidential. The board office records that this was done.
6. Send questions from paper annotations to the board office before the meeting; anything that matters for the board goes into the minutes.
7. The rule applies equally to the chair, to members and to guests who receive papers for single items.

Sample wording for the organisational regulations: «Board papers may be printed from the board portal or by the board office once the board book has been released. Printed copies of papers marked confidential must be returned to the board office or destroyed after the meeting. The digital board book and the minutes are the binding record.» Adjust it to your own regulations; if you have none yet, our post on organisational regulations explains where such a clause belongs.

What does the rule look like at Muster AG?

Muster AG is an invented company, used here only as an example. Its board of five meets four times a year. The board office releases the board book ten days before each meeting and prints a copy for the two directors who prefer paper, with the version and date in the footer and the director's name on the cover sheet. A third director prints at home from the portal.

Three days before the meeting, the CFO replaces one paper. The board office tells everyone by email, sends a dated replacement page to the two directors on paper and asks the third to print it again. At the start of the item, the chair says «version 2, dated the 12th». After the meeting, the two paper copies go back to the board office, which ticks them off on its list and shreds them. The minutes record the resolution; nobody's notes are part of the record.

Nothing in this example needed new technology. It needed a clear owner for each step.

What about paper in the meeting itself?

Paper in the room is fine as long as everyone reads the same version. The chair should open each item by naming the version under discussion, and late changes should be handed out as a dated replacement page, not explained orally. After the meeting, the binding record is the minutes and the digital board book, not anyone's annotated copy. That keeps the advantages of paper without letting it become a second, unofficial archive.

Does the same rule work for foundations, associations and group boards?

Yes, with small changes. For a foundation or association board whose members are volunteers, keep the rule to three lines and have the secretary print or send a paper copy to those who ask, so nobody prints at the workplace. For a subsidiary board in a group, align the version marker and the return rule with the group's information-security policy, so directors who sit on several boards follow one habit. For a listed company or a regulated one, the printing rule should be checked against the company's own confidentiality and insider rules, which can be stricter than anything in this post.

What are the most common mistakes?

• Writing a ban nobody enforces, and then not noticing that directors print anyway.
• Printing early to be safe, so the paper is the first draft, not the final board book.
• Treating the annotated copy as the record. The minutes and the decisions register are the record.
• Applying the rule to members but not to the chair or to guests.
• Forgetting the end of the life cycle: copies that are neither returned nor destroyed.

What does a board portal add to a printing policy?

A portal does not replace the rule; it makes the version part of it easy to follow. Konsaro shows directors the current version of each paper, lets the board office restrict access per paper and per agenda item, and records downloads in the audit log, so it is visible who took which paper out of the portal. Directors can also annotate papers privately in the portal, visible only to them, which is a useful alternative for those who like to mark up but would rather not carry paper. The board can set document security levels per paper, such as a watermark carrying the reader's name or printing disabled, which we suggest keeping for the few papers that really need it. See board materials, download controls and watermarks and security.