software to help with board meetings (agenda, attachments, meeting minutes, etc)
RandyMacon
Posts: 4 ✭✭
Hi friends!
I'd like to hear from anyone using software to help with board meetings. I'm starting to ponder the value of having software like OnBoard, Diligent, etc., that will help produce agendas, manage attachments, help automate the process of taking minutes, follow-up, etc. I'd love to hear your recommendations and experiences. Thanks in advance!
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Our organization uses Board Effect. We originally looked into Diligent but it was outside of our budget. This is where we learned that Board Effect was another version made more specifically to non-profits. I've also heard of the program, Fathom, which is an AI program that will take minutes for you if you are connected through zoom. I have not used it, but have heard great things from a colleague who uses it. Board Effect is amazing at helping get board books and agendas together among some other things. Good luck finding a good fit for you and your org.
Randy, our Foundation has used Board Effect for over five years. I highly recommend it - great functionality, site security, and technical assistance. During the pandemic, BE offered their platform free to nonprofits. As Rhonda said above, it's part of Diligent. (Their conference is in Houston this year.) Our staff uploads documents needed for review by section - Minutes, CEO Report, Grants, Financials, Admin, etc. BE builds the meeting book and the agenda. Our administrator then proofs the final "meeting book" and distributes it via BE 5 days before our Trustees meet. Board members download and annotate their meeting materials on their devices (which we provide specifically for our meetings), or access online through our customized BE site. Reviewed and signed minutes can be uploaded after the meeting, along with any other materials presented at the meeting and the meeting books stored on BE. We also use Zoom integrated with Read and Meeting Owl for staff, consultants, and board members to attend remotely when needed. BE works well for us, and we haven't investigated similar software, so I cannot speak to the differences. Good luck!
We started using OnBoard this year. We considered BoardEffect when we were making our selection, but here is what I learned through much research and discussion.
Board Docs, Diligent Boards, and BoardEffect are all owned (bought out) by Diligent. Diligent is their flagship product, and so they are able to steer some customers toward their cheaper offerings where it's appropriate. I know some software companies like to buy out their smaller competitors just to dominate the market share. My concern was they might not invest in any new innovation with these other product lines, beyond their flagship.
We wanted to find a product, like we found with Foundant's CSuite, that stays current with our needs. We haven't been with OnBoard long enough to see how quickly they make improvements and/or take our feedback. But I can tell you their onboarding (no pun intended) is robust and extremely supportive. What I was personally drawn to most is OnBoard is consistently ranked higher in peer reviews than BoardEffect (I looked at 3 comparison tools and read a lot of reviews)!
We have been quite happy with OnBoard so far. Like any piece of software, it may not do everything that we want it to perfectly (there are some features I have requested already, like more customization of the agenda it produces). But it is wonderful to have one location for our board and committee members to login to that has all the information we formerly emailed to them in a giant PDF. It makes the creation of that packet much easier, as well as the distribution.
You can take attendance and minutes right in the tool. You can create resource folders for sharing documents, and the permissions are very granular, so you can share the right content with the right groups, and nothing more. There are advanced features for us still to explore, that will allow us to collect approvals or signatures and take surveys.
Whichever tool you choose, I'm sure you would find value in having a separate tool to help streamline all the prep work. You can get setup with a free trial of OnBoard to put it through the paces and see if it might meet your needs.
We are satisfied and happy users of BoardEffect (Diligent) for nearly seven (7) years. BoardEffect makes improvements based upon client input; sussing out any glitches or testing and implementing improvements that may be suggested by the users.