How should we make the best use of trustee/committee meetings and get most out of them personally? The agenda seems to be the same from one meeting to the next - many trustees turn up a minute before the start and can't wait to get away at the end. I don't think that many of them feel very involved or that they're making much of a contribution to the charity's work.
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You don't say what the charity's work is - is there still a need for it?
Can you suggest setting out agendas for the year? Standing items should be apols, minutes of previous meeting and matters arising, reports - from senior staff member, subcommittees, finance; after that, policies and procedures should be reviewed on a rotational basis so the annual agenda setting would have e.g. financial policy reviewed in May, equal opps in July etc.
Your organisation should have some kind of business plan/operational/strategic plan against which the trustees should review various milestones at each meeting, and if things are not going according to plan, see what needs to be done by them (you) and/or staff to get back on track.
Can you make your query an agenda item, sounding out one or two other trustees in advance to see if they feel the same way? If not, maybe you've done as much as you can for this organisation and its time for you to move on?
The NCVO website also has some good suggestions.