Case Study
Client Challenge
Karen realized her board needed electronic access to their materials.
Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System printed and manually distributed all board materials when Karen Schroeder, Executive Assistant, first heard of BoardEffect four years ago. It was clear to Karen that delivering paper packets to board members’ homes was inefficient. Not only did it drain staff time to produce copies of 200-page meeting books, but active travel schedules meant that often board members weren’t home in time to review or even receive their materials before board meetings. Karen realized her board needed electronic access to their materials and the Healthcare System’s executive leadership team was eager to explore their options to improve the process.
The BoardEffect Solution
“We used to spend much more time preparing board materials, but now the process is much quicker.”
Around the same time, Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System was considering its membership renewal to The Governance Institute and found that special access to BoardEffect would be among the valued benefits. Her organization implemented BoardEffect and saw immediate time savings.
“We used to spend much more time preparing board materials,” explains Karen, “but now the process is much quicker.” And it’s certainly easier to hit the print button than to stand for hours at a copy machine in order to create hard copies of the board book.
The Impact
“Board members seem thrilled with their expanded usage… and find it easier to be engaged and informed.”
To her surprise, Karen’s 200-page board books have nearly doubled in size. “Perhaps we’ve added more information, say about the industry and relevant policies, simply because we could.” Now that information included in board books can be more fluid and timely, the board appreciates easy access to more than just basic meeting materials. Board education transcends meetings themselves. For example, the organization’s board orientation handbook is online, making the start-up process more simple and convenient for new board members.
Back-end use of the BoardEffect platform expanded beyond the President’s office. The organization’s media department quickly realized it could be an invaluable tool for posting information about events and news stories. According to Karen, “Board members seem thrilled with their expanded usage… and find it easier to be engaged and informed.” One of her board members was particularly grateful that she could access the portal remotely when her plane was delayed and she spent some extended time in an airport.
Tips
To use BoardEffect most effectively, Karen offers this guidance:
- More training time might help to ease anxiety, but isn’t really necessary – the technology is easy and intuitive. And the BoardEffect support team is a valuable resource, there to help in any way you need.
- Any BoardEffect features that your organization doesn’t need can be left unused and, in some cases, turned off.
- BoardEffect doesn’t impact just your board books, it improves your entire workflow.
