Tech Tools for Board Effectiveness September 22, 2009 Julia Riseman Kevin Martone Mentor Technology Program Manager Grinspoon Institute for Jewish Philanthropy

Agenda: Welcome and Instructions (Kevin) 6 Examples of Tech Solutions (Julia)  Common Complaints (Kirstin)  Tech Solution (Julia)  How to use it (Kevin) Q&A (Julia and Kevin) Find all of our reviews of Tools for Board Effectiveness at

A) Grab Tab – Click double-arrows to open/close Control Panel. Click square to toggle Viewer Window between full screen/window mode. Click mic icon to mute/unmute your audio B) Audio Pane – Select audio format. Click Audio Setup to verify Speakers & Microphone. C) Questions Pane – Attendees can submit questions and review answers. D) Type your question and click Send to submit it to the organizer.

Interacting with Presenters & Participants During the Session  Ask Questions  Share Your Experiences  Use the Questions Log to post questions throughout the session. After the Session  Please join the discussion on this topic in our Discussion Forums at  Please find all materials from this session (including a recording of the presentation) on our Webinar page at

From Good to Great Good Boards get things done. Great Boards seek better ways to get things done to free up time to talk about the things that really matter – planning for the future.

Tech Tools for better results Free or low-cost web tools can help Boards work smarter and solve common problems Today’s webinar will explore common problems and point to possible tech approaches to improve Board performance

What Kinds of Problems? Busy lives of volunteer Board members make it hard to find meeting times, attend committee meetings, and get things done

What Kinds of Problems? Busy lives of volunteer Board members make it hard to find meeting times, attend committee meetings, and get things done. Schedule meetings with MeetingWizard

What Kinds of Problems? Busy lives of volunteer Board members make it hard to find meeting times, attend committee meetings, and get things done. Board documents are hard to find when needed. Keep Board documents accessible with Dropbox

What Kinds of Problems? Busy lives of volunteer Board members make it hard to find meeting times, attend committee meetings, and get things done. Board documents are hard to find when needed. Board Committees have trouble getting traction, coordinating, and getting reports submitted well in advance of meetings. Track work done by (threads) with Google Groups

What Kinds of Problems? Busy lives of volunteer Board members make it hard to find meeting times, attend committee meetings, and get things done. Board documents are hard to find when needed. Board Committees have trouble getting traction, coordinating, and getting reports submitted well in advance of meetings. Strategic plans or fundraising plans lose the Board’s attention and focus. Improve productivity of Board meetings with GoToMeeting

What Kinds of Problems? Busy lives of volunteer Board members make it hard to find meeting times, attend committee meetings, and get things done. Board documents are hard to find when needed. Board Committees have trouble getting traction, coordinating, and getting reports submitted well in advance of meetings. Strategic plans or fundraising plans lose their focus or the Board’s attention. Name YOUR biggest headaches during today’s Q&A

What’s the Catch? Implementing tech solutions requires that you invest time to: Identify the problem to solve Investigate the options Learn the tool Test it to see if it works Teach others on the Board to use it

Complaint “We don’t have an active Board Executive Committee. We’re all so busy, and it’s so difficult to find a time to meet outside of Board meetings. I hate chasing after people to get back to me with their schedules. I just give up after a while.”

Solution? Use free online meeting scheduling services to find common meeting times, set meetings, collect RSVP’s and send automatic meeting reminders. MeetingWizard.com or Doodle.com

Complaint “If only our committee could meet one more time before the Board meeting and finish this report. But Ira doesn’t drive at night and everyone is so busy on the weekends.”

Solution? Use a free conference call service like FreeConferenceCall.com. Obtain a phone number and access code to use anytime. Each person pays long distance fee if applicable. Can use Skype (free internet phone service) to avoid long distance calling fee.

Complaint “A conference call is helpful, but we need to finish this mission statement. If we discuss making changes, everyone needs to see the wording and approve it before it can go to the Board. We’ll have to schedule two or more calls. Ugg.”

Solution? While on a phone, have committee see and/or make edits to the same document at the same time from their computers, using shared document service like Google Docs. Everyone sees changes in real time. Approval of the report can be done over the phone in the conference call.

Complaint “Our Board meets by conference call four times a year, and twice a year in-person. The conference call meetings are hard to manage and have substantive conversations. I have the feeling no one was following the Strategic Planning report.”

Solution? Improve the Board’s ability to focus during Board meetings with an on-line connection You can have visual sight of each other with video conferencing tools (SightSpeed). You can augment a conference call with desktop sharing with web conferencing tools (GoToMeeting).

SightSpeed Uses webcams  Users may also just call in For multi-person (up to 9 attendees), requires a paid subscription

GoToMeeting Allows you to share your screen – presentations, demos, documents, etc. Monthly fee Some free competitors are available now as well (reliability?)

Complaint “We need help with our new Board Member Orientation. I’m not sure where the Board manual is kept. I don’t know if anyone reads the by-laws. And I know the Board job description needs updating to include the expectation of giving and help with fundraising. I don’t want to have to retype it again.”

Solution? Keep all Board Documents online in a secure location that all Board members can access when needed at any time. Keep Minutes, Board Manuals, Board Job Descriptions, Committee mandates, the Strategic Plan, etc. Dropbox is just one example of such a service

Complaint The Fundraising Committee is working hard, s are flying and I can’t keep up with what has been decided about this year’s Dinner Dance. We go around in circles about the same questions. Worse, David got dropped from the group list by mistake, and now he is mad about being left in the dark. What can I do?

Solution? Google Groups can: Organize the Board’s list Keep a running list of the s connected to a topic, so anyone can look back and see what was discussed or decided Manage links to important documents for everyone to access and read

Google Groups - CYJMW

Conclusion: Be Effective! There are many free web-based tools that you can use to support and improve your Board’s effectiveness. Think critically about the common challenges your Board faces, and seek ways to overcome them. Tech is always changing – keep learning!

The Grinspoon Gift to You: Mentors can help identify problems GIJP eNewsletter and websites link you to information and resources – expand your knowledge Tech team (Joe and Kevin) can help provide tech advice and training Only YOU can implement

For More Information Please find additional reviews of tools to help Board Effectiveness on our website at This presentation and recorded session will be available in our Webinar archives by the end of the week: Tech Program Blog: GIJP eNewsletter Archives: