Thanks to the 105 of you who responded to our Paperless Board Meetings survey launched December 15. The survey invitation was sent to 174 contacts representing all 198 AGRiP member pools. As is our practice, we are now sharing the survey results with all who responded. Information from the survey will be made available to others later.
For the purposes of reviewing the survey results, AGRiP considered that a pool provides a paperless board meeting option for governing board members if the board agenda and informational material needed for the meeting is available electronically prior to the meeting. This definition of “paperless board meeting” does not preclude the use of paper copies at meetings of material available electronically, or handouts at the meeting from providers or subject matter experts (for example a broker or auditor).
Our staff review noted that 75 pools (71.4 percent of the 105 survey respondents) report that they make board meeting material available electronically prior to meetings. However, only 28 (26.67%) indicated in their survey responses that their governing board meetings were “paperless”.
Respondents indicated that material is transmitted electronically by the following means:
Email / Flash Drive/Equivalent / Pool Website / Other*55% / 3% / 42% / 6%
*Other is a third party site or “cloud technology”
Of the 75 respondents that make board meeting material available electronically prior to meetings, 16 (21 percent) provide an electronic device (tablet, smart phone, netbook, laptop or their equivalent) owned by the organization for use at the meeting. Of the remaining 59 respondents that do not provide an electronic device, fewer than 10 percent provide funding for board members to purchase their own.
There were 3 responses to the question on funding equipment purchases by board members where the pool does not own the devices used by them during paperless meetings, as follows:
Each Board member is eligible for a one-time IT Grant of up to $500 to acquire a device of his or her choosing. They are reimbursed up to the maximum based on providing documentation of the actual costs.Grant funds can be used
out of equipment expense
Responses to another question were as follows:
If your pool uses a web based application in your paperless board meeting agenda development and distribution such as SharePoint or similar software for online collaboration, please share your observations and experiences about the web based applicationin the text box below.# / Response
1 / Currently they have access from the website and for some an email pdf. We think we will be moving to a "drop box" approach but you are now venturing into my non-comfort zone. My IT manager can provide more learned detail if necessary.
2 / Our Pool uses "BoardDocs" which is used by many school boards across the country. It is an excellent product. Info is readily uploaded, kept safe, easy to access and it is a good archive of information.
3 / Some board members still want paper.
4 / very good no problems used for 4 years "Boardbook"
5 / Great. We post materials one week prior and delete one week after to protect Pool proprietary data.
6 / We use "Go to meeting" and present power point presentations live on line. Members can attend in person or dial / log in remotely.
7 / We have experienced no issues with the member accessing the pool information via the pools website.
8 / SharePoint Access
9 / Works better on some devices than others
10 / Adobe Reader for ipad
11 / Our Trustees were just given IPads and the feedback is outstanding!!! I "deputized" them and they are now helping market our Funds to other Board Members throughout the state.
12 / Go To Meeting - Difficulty is determining if members 'got it'?
13 / We use Adobe and utilize the book mark feature. Very simple but effective to jump around during a meeting.
14 / BoardBook. It works very well for us.
15 / All agenda items are upload to the web via ICompass. Members are able to access the agenda and attachment through the web-based program.
16 / Use AJG portal and website
17 / It has taken some time for our Board Directors to learn how to access and download the Board agendas. It has really worked well though. We used to send out paper Board agendas to all 120+ members. Lots of paper and a lot of expense. There were no complaints among the membership about going to electronic packets. We do have 2 Directors which still like us to have a hard copy available to them at the meeting.
Responses to the final question were:
7. If you answered "No" or "Transiting" to Question #1 please share the considerations that have beendiscussed by staff and/or board memberson this topic.# / Response
1 / A majority still want paper in hand without having to print at home.
2 / Technology needs, Freedom of Information issues, utilization by Trustees.
3 / Our web portal allows us to timely communicate and archive material needed by our board members, and has also eliminated many mailings, though we still produce a hard copy board binder for every board member that is distributed at the beginning of the meeting. The web portal would allow us to essentially go paperless, assuming all board members would have a device to access this material at the board meeting. There has been some discussion of doing that, but discussion only and budget/cost is an issue, and there is also an issue of possible non-pool use of this equipment and how would that be handled. Some board members also still prefer a hard copy of materials, and I share some of that sentiment.
4 / We have considered this issues several times. Our sponsoring organization went to electronic board meetings about 6 or 7 years ago. The Association issued each board member a laptop and e-mails the board materials electronically. My personal view is that the effectiveness of the meetings has diminished. Board members are surfing the web, checking e-mail etc. instead of paying attention to the meeting. Board members are also less likely to actually read the materials before the meeting. Where they used to at least flip through the packet prior to the meeting, they seem not to do that anymore. So they are less prepared for the meeting. As a result, we have been reluctant to go that route for our pool board. We do however, post our board materials on the web, so if someone wants to access them electronically, they can.
5 / While we do have paperless meetings, some members choose to print the materials on their own, and we will print materials for members on request.
6 / Right now we place electronic materials available on our website in the protected/board members only area. However, we also send paper copies to each board member (at their request). 11 of our 12 board members bring the paper copies of the material to the board meetings rather than using their own personal laptops to access the electronic material.
7 / We provide electronic board materials to those Board members who have a preference for receiving them that way. There are others who prefer to receive a hard-copy packet. We are flexible and accommodating.
8 / All board meeting documents are maintained by ACCO staff in large size binder books separated by month. The binder books are provided to the board members upon arrival at the scheduled board meetings and left behind when they leave. These binder books are kept in our in house CPA's office when not in use under lock and key.
9 / We considered this option, found that distribution / receipt of documents was not effecient. Board distracted with electronic devices at meeting.
10 / Only quarterly meetings and not enough on the agenda to justify the cost.
11 / The board meets infrequently and it is not realistic for them to print the large amount of data presented to them from e-mail. Also, numerous documents are handed out at site. Bottom line: Too much info. to transmit electronically so impractical.
12 / Hasn't been discussed
13 / No discussion of going paperless
14 / has not been discussed
15 / We haven't considered going paperless.
16 / We have just starting talking about this issue and in fact will be trying a couple of things with a couple of Board members to see how it works. So I wouldn't say we are transitioning to paperless, but are considering the idea. This is a very timely topic for us, thank you.
17 / Consensus is they do not desire to move that direction yet. Perhaps after the next transition of members.
18 / more than one board member not accustomed to or comfortable with the digital, electronic age.
19 / We send out agenda materials to the Executive Committee members prior to the meeting but have printed paper copies at the actual meeting.
20 / a couple Board members do not use email
21 / Some board members and staff still want paper board packets. Only two of nine trustees use the electronic versions.
22 / We are pretty much paperless. There are individual preferences regarding receiving the information on a CD-Rom, downloading or accessing the information via the secure website.
23 / We are in the process of considering to provide iPADS but have officially made the packets available on line but will still provide paper packets to those who prefer it.
24 / We currently provide all board items in advance of the meeting electronically to board members and avoid any extra paper. During the meetings, the clerk still takes notes and then we distribute those electronically as well. The Board members utilize their computers at home or at their public positions to access the information electronically. We are financially unable to provide any funds to help them purchase devices.
25 / I answered transiting as not all of our pools about 80 have not fully adopted an e-tablet policy which I believe is the most important aspect of this next big change in pool administration.
26 / Hasn't been sufficient interest and/or too many concerns expressed in the past to press for paperless meetings. However, all advance materials are provided electronically then produced and included in meeting notebooks.
27 / Have not had this discussion.
28 / We transmit the Board Packet by email. But, we provide a paper copy at the meeting. Some members print and bring their own copy, but most rely on the copy we provide at the meeting. Sending packet by email saves on postage and insures speedy delivery.
29 / There has not been any interest or discussion.
30 / Our board likes the ability to have the board packet in paper format to write on, take with them to the meeting and to have as a record after the meeting. They also felt it encouraged more eye contact during the meetings. They like trees but still prefer to conduct meetings the traditional way.
31 / We send materials via email in advance of the meeting, but still provide a hard copy of the packet to each board member at the meeting.
32 / At board retreat, some interest was expressed in having a tablet or IPad provided by pool. Others wanted a board packet location on the Web site. Both ideas are being reviewed now. Some members bring own laptops to meetings. Most still request paper copies of packets. We have sent more materials via email for download which seems satisfactory to most members.
33 / We are almost completely transitioned, but still have a couple of Directors who prefer a printed copy. We expect them to do the printing, but still have to provide support at meetings.
34 / None at this time.
35 / Will likely not go completely paperless, will always offer both
36 / Most other meetings, including meetings of Board committees, have gone paperless, but for the quarterly meeting of the full Board of Directors, the membership has determined that those who prefer a paper packet should receive one. Many individuals on the Board would be satisfied with an electronic document, but with each of our 72 members having a delegate and alternate, staff has determined it is more efficient to mail packets to everyone than to track the personal preferences of 144 individuals.
37 / Working with school districts we have found that they have limits on the size of their e-mail attachments and this prohibits us from completely paperless meetings.
38 / Our trustees have clearly expressed the desire to receive hard copies of meeting materials rather than electronic.
39 / We are transiting very slowly.
40 / It probably should be discussed again. Last time it surfaced, not all Board members had high speed Internet capability as some of our rural areas still were primarily using a dial up interface.
41 / Board members feel a need to have hard copies
42 / We still mail board materials to members. We send it to board members electronically on request and we do have a few board members who request this alternative. We also post the agenda packet internally for staff.
43 / (CountyP&C pool) IS NOT CONSIDERING PAPERLESS MEETINGS AT THIS TIME.
44 / Board member preference, and ability to access on-line information.
45 / We have discussed the paperless board meeting idea; right now we are looking into distributing touch pads to all of our board members to access the board packages electronically. The IT department has just started looking into this idea and we are currently in the process of testing. Although we have not decided on a method or format for the electronic board packages at this time, some of the formats discussed have been PDF files downloaded from an FTP site or website and MMS web page files.
46 / Our meetings are conducted with the entire membership. It would be too costly to provide laptops, etc. to all of them. We do e-mail our agendas and post them to our website and I have observed some members take a tablet or laptop to the meetings.
47 / My board simply prefers paper. Some board members do NOT have computer, access to computers or an appetite to use the. We have recently witnessed (not in our organization) all the pitfalls that can occur with electronic communication of board materials.
48 / Staff has encouraged the Board to consider paperless Board Meetings through Drop Box application to iPads. No go, so far. Some of the staff use the above technique for our own participation in Board Meetings. Works great.
49 / Agree on meeting protocol - review materials - participate - turn off distractions(e-mail) -
50 / We send the meeting materials by e-mail. Some board members print them out and work from those paper copies at the meeting. Others bring their own laptops to the meetings and work from electronic copies using their laptop. This "however the individual wants to do it" approach works fine, and at this point we don't really see this issue as presenting any further problem that needs fixing.
51 / We tried to email agendas to Exec. Comm. members. They preferred hard copy, so practice was stopped.
52 / We electronically distribute Board materials in .pdf form; some Board members elect to follow electronically on their own devices, some print it out themselves. We do not project the agenda or items on the big screen unless it's a powerpoint presentation.
53 / We began emailing the board agenda packet to our members in the fall. Roughly 1/3 of the board accesses the information through their own I-pads. The other board members have shown no interest in transitioning at this time, but we hope that during this year, those not currently using an e-devise will ask to go paperless.
54 / Some board members do use laptops at meetings for agendas but our board does not have an appetite for purchaseing electronic equipment for board members at this time.
55 / We discussed the iPad will come with WiFi only not 3G so need to worry about a service plan. We will provide a protective case with iPad. We are working on a detailed Policy to address issues of who qualifies for the iPad as well as technical support etc.
56 / Have moved to sending board packets electronically, next fiscal year, will be budgeting for company owned tablets that the board will use at board meetings.
57 / Our entire organization is paperless. All mail is scanned at the front desk and all staff work is from claims, to loss control, to our personnel policies, and files are all paperless. However, we print and mail our board packets. The board likes to receive them this way and use paper during the meeting. We retain all board packet copies electronically in our digital document management system and all board power points and handouts are digitized after the board meeting.
58 / We do a combination of paperless and hard copy for our Board members. Their preference is to receive the printed copy in advance of the meeting. However, it is also posted to the JPA's website.
59 / A link to the document is sent to the board members for them to access prior to the meeting. A printed copy is provided at the meeting.
60 / Was considered, but the lack of portable devices presented problems.
61 / Provide flash drives to some board members while others still want hard copies.
62 / The board is a diverse group with varying levels of comfort regarding paper data versus electronic. A few Board members have experimented with electronic data with good results. In the long run paperless is very likely.
63 / discussed but no interest. We only meet 2-3 times a year
64 / We tried paperless and have gone back to sending out the information via email a week or so ahead of the meeting and then furnishing Board Members with hard copies for the Meeting. It was difficult for our Board Members to print long documents and also not convenient for many of them to review technical material on the screen. Some also like to keep notes. We recycle all paper not taken at the end of the meeting.
65 / Board tried to go paperless and bought laptops for members several years ago. Old habits and difficulty in scrolling between different documents in the agenda sunk the effort after two years.
66 / Not a big item now. We are transiting but it is not a hot button item. I like to make sure they have the agenda at least one week in advance and sending them the hard copy assures me of that. They can also get it from our web-site
67 / For the board meetings we currently email all documents to be board members and the general membership. They are responsible to print and bring what they like. Only one board member brings his own laptop to meeting and uses it to access the meeting materials and who knows what else. All staff still have printed packets.
68 / We provide an electronic copy on our website for members to download and print if desired or have a hard copy mailed to them. Most members prefer a hard copy be sent.
69 / These are the concerns, however, they can be overcome if pool management is willing: - Electronic board packets sent to town office would be public information. - Electronic packets could be forwarded too easily to other parties. - Cost of providing board with laptops or ipads is too great. They can't be gifts - would have to be lent and returned. - If board member wants hard copy, they would have to print material.
And, an uncategorized response noted, “They print the pertinent sections from the email and bring. so, it’s not totally paperless--just the notifications are and this probably saves 60%-70% of the prior paper generated, in the form of Exhibit attachments.”