Technology is changing everything, including how boards do their work. As a seminary president, for example, I advocated for a paperless board, which is a great tool for any group of trustees.
Over several meetings, our school transitioned to a thoughtfully designed, user-friendly portal to facilitate board business. As a result, board members had immediately access to archives. With the click of a mouse, they could use email, listservs, and other e-communication tools to share thoughts and questions instantly with their colleagues. Committee posts and reports were all posted on the portal. Some votes were taken online. Except for a couple of holdouts, everyone bought into the program after being trained and encouraged to use this new tool.
A paperless board does come with some legal, technical, and licensing issues. For a good review of some problems with digital communication, see Lawrence White’s short article in Trusteeship (September/October 2013, p. 7), “The Paperless Board and the Law,” which is available to AGB members here.
Image credit: Matt Forster