Customer Stories

Casady School

How OnBoard Helped One Pre-K-12 School Eliminate Its Reliance on Paper.

Industry: Education

Board Size: 15 members

Board Management Goals

Moving away from a reliance on paper and emails for communications.
Receiving new data well in advance of a meeting
Needing to locate policies and historical information quickly and needing to get questions answered easily

Results

Moved away from a reliance on paper and emails for communication
Empowered staff to upload committee documents at the last minute
Enabled Board members to have access to important up-to-date information in the palm of their hands instead of an outdated notebook on a shelf.

The Challenge

Since opening in 1947 to 36 students, Casady School has evolved to become an independent, co-educational, college preparatory, Episcopal day school serving 900+ students in pre-K-12. Located in the heart of Oklahoma City, the institution is on a mission to develop “excellence, confidence, and integrity in students while instilling them with strong spiritual and moral values.”

Embodying these values is HannahLu Watson. HannahLu began serving as the administrative assistant to the Head of School in 2017. A seasoned veteran of 35+ years with nonprofit boards in and for education, Watson was not surprised when, during her first days serving as Staff Liaison to the board of trustees, she was entrusted with a copy of the ever-important board manual and advised that one needed to be created for all new board members and updated annually for returning trustees.

“I was given a copy of a board manual that was a two-inch-thick notebook that had all the bylaws, policies, phone lists, committee lists, and the meeting dates,” she says. Watson’s predecessor would prepare the manual every summer and distribute copies to the six officers and 15 board members who comprised the Board of Trustees. “The intention was for every board member to update it as the year progressed. We probably know how well that worked,” she laughs. “Many trees were killed in the process.”

During that first summer, Watson was tasked with finding a replacement for this cumbersome and wasteful process. Though the concept of a board portal was a new one, she did a lot of questioning and research and soon narrowed a long list of providers down to a few. Based on the experience of a board member whose university foundation had built its own portal, she knew a bit of what to seek. It did not take long for OnBoard to rise to the top of the list.

Since implementing OnBoard, Watson has used the platform to make the board more efficient and resolve several challenges, including:

Moving away from a reliance on paper and emails for communications.
Receiving new data at the last minute before a meeting
Needing to locate policies and historical information quickly and needing to get questions answered easily

“Even when materials would be emailed, board books would still be photocopied on paper. People were still very reliant upon walking in and getting that paper copy because they hadn’t read or had lost track of their emails

The Solution to Relying on Paper and Emails for Communications

Casady School’s Board of Trustees is an all-volunteer body of four officers and 17 board members comprised of alumni, parents, and business leaders (“a bank chairman, doctors, lawyers, civic leaders – people from all walks of life”). In addition to a passion for education and the well-being of the students, many board members had another thing in common: an over-reliance on paper and emails for communications.

“Even when materials would be emailed, board books would still be photocopied on paper,” Watson says. “People were still very reliant upon walking in and getting that paper copy because they hadn’t read or had lost track of their emails. And then there would be a lot of paper that would have to be shredded after each meeting.”

Watson tested OnBoard first with the board’s governance committee. To reduce the amount of paper she was having to print and photocopy for each meeting, Watson uploaded agendas, minutes, and other important committee documents to the platform. “It took a little while to get everyone used to the concept,” she says. “But the beta test went well enough that we were able to announce we would bring it to our full board beginning with meetings during the next school year.”

Fast-forward just a year later, and everyone from the Head of School to committee chairs project OnBoard during in-person meetings on a screen from their own laptop or mobile device. “Even if they present their own slide deck, that slide deck then gets added to OnBoard afterward and becomes part of the board book that goes into the historic documents. I love that it is all right there in one place.” Watson says.

To increase efficiency even further, Watson has empowered other members of the staff to upload committee documents to OnBoard. “We have a very active, healthy committee system. Each committee’s staff person now has learned how to go into OnBoard and create their own agenda and add their own documents,” she says. “I handle the board meetings, so they send me whatever needs to go in the consent agenda and the committee report. But [individual staff members] handle all of the committee meeting documents.”

Now, if something has changed, we can upload the new numbers at 4 p.m. right before the meeting.

The Solution to Needing Up-to-Minute Data

Like other organizations, Casady School’s Board of Trustees has a constant need for updated data. Before implementing OnBoard, this meant having to distribute more paper copies, present information verbally, or settling for having less-than-timely data. Now, Watson and other staff members can upload documents at any time into the book for a meeting or OnBoard Resource Folders that have been created for each committee.

Watson explains how this has changed by citing an example from the school’s admissions committee.

“With our admissions and marketing committee, the information can change day-by-day,” she says. “Back in the copy and print day, the committee wouldn’t have the most up-to-date information. Now, if something has changed, we can upload the new numbers at 4 p.m. right before the meeting.”

“We were always fairly well organized,” Watson says. “The ability to upload data at the last minute has made information more accurate and relevant.”

“When I was given the charge to investigate OnBoard, I didn’t even know what a board portal was. Now I can’t imagine functioning without it.”

The Results

When Casady School’s Board of Trustees first met on Feb. 17, 1947, the first order of business was accepting a donation of the 38 acres, a small lake, one house, and two barns that would provide the land and first buildings for the school. Eight decades later, the Board of Trustees at Casady School proudly upholds that first Board’s legacy of excellence. OnBoard has helped it become even more efficient by:

Moving away from a reliance on paper and emails for communication
Empowering staff to upload committee documents at the last minute
Enabling Board members to have access to important up-to-date information in the palm of their hand instead of an outdated notebook on a shelf.

Watson is unequivocal about her positive experience with OnBoard. “When I was given the charge to investigate OnBoard, I didn’t even know what a board portal was,” Watson says. “Now I can’t imagine functioning without it.”

For Watson, the increased efficiency she has helped bring about using OnBoard means she (or a thick binder of paper) does not have to be the sole repository of information. She recently learned this first-hand.

“I have seen the board grow in understanding that OnBoard is where they need to go for information,” Watson says. “A board member emailed me the other day wanting to know if I would send him the latest copy of the bylaws. It happened to be a day that I was at a doctor’s appointment. I couldn’t respond immediately, and 30 minutes later, he said, ‘Never mind. I found them on the portal.’ That is my definition of a win-win!”

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