Faced with a daunting calendar of meetings, and all the other time pressures in their lives, governors sometimes ask how many meetings and committees they are really expected to attend. The short answer is 'all of them'. The reason is quite simple: the contribution of individual governors is crucial, not least because an individual governor is party to decisions even if he or she has not actually attended. Non-attendance is also unfair on governors who do regularly turn up, and therefore carry a greater proportion of the work of the board or committees.