The Binders work on channelers by using their connection to the Source to lay down the Compulsion. This is why it is not only symbolic but necessary for there to be one channeler to operate the Binder and another channeler to agree to be Bound. This is also why Binders do not work on non-channeling criminals, with other ter'angreal, such as the Chair of Remorse, or a Compulsion weave, being used for such purposes.

If Mesaana was in a Link, the Compulsion might very well be negated because her access to the Power was being provided from other connections.

In this case, by the time Egwene had ordered that every Aes Sedai re-swear the Oaths, we were told that all the Black Ajah members had fled, and only a few were captured in comparison to the amount captured in the Rebel camp. It seems to me that this piece of information is very important, because it indicated not only that the Black Ajah figured out what Egwene was going to do, but also they had time to coordinate and plan.

Perhaps Mesaana ordered one or more Black Ajah Sisters into a Link and by this, she escaped being bound because Compulsion would not work on a channeler that was Linked with others?

An example would be a Shield. A Shield usually doesn't work when wielded by one channeler against a Circle because the Shielder would need to be strong enough to cut off all the members of the Circle at once, which is hard to do (in fact, we've never seen this happen - all we've seen was Rand attack a Shield that had held him by destroying tied off points). Perhaps Compulsion works the same way.

We also know that the distance a channeler can Travel before their Link beings to attenuate and weaken is quite considerable - the Black Ajah Aes Sedai could have been hundreds of miles away from Tar Valon and still contribute to Mesaana's Circle.

Strengthening piece of trivia: We are also told that holding the Power gives you increased protection from Compulsion. If you were to increase your power level by a significant amount, you could make yourself immune to another channelers' Compulsion weave unless they themselves used a Circle, angreal or sa'angreal to significantly boost the strength of their weave. By Linking to 12 other Black Ajah Sisters and keeping the amount of Power she held negligible enough to pass, Mesaana might have made herself too powerful to be Bound by all but the strongest Aes Sedai currently living in a Circle directed against her.