How can a private educational institution improve how its board operates including providing more timely access to board materials for directors and save time on communication?
Founded in 1930, St. George’s School is a private university preparatory institution for boys in Kindergarten through Grade 12. The 16-member Board of Directors of the St. George’s School Society oversees the school’s management and operations teams. The school’s endowment funds and assets are held by the St. George’s School Foundation through a 10-member Board of Trustees.
See why St. George’s School and its governance consultant chose the Aprio board portal to support strong board operations and efficient board administration. Download the full case study.
The challenge: inefficient board communication
The volunteer boards at St. George’s School were facing significant frustrations and inefficiencies in their operation, particularly in the distribution of board materials and the changing of meeting dates.
The boards were using email as their primary way to communicate updates and distribute board materials. However, large documents and multiple attachments often led to delivery issues or missed items.
The solution: Aprio’s right fit board portal
St. George’s sought the help of governance consultant Claudia Ferris who agreed to join the Society and Foundation boards as Board Secretary to help establish the governance framework and improve the functioning of the boards’ structures and their committees.
Having used board technology in the past, Ferris also saw the opportunity to use a board portal to make accessing board materials more convenient for directors as well as make board administration tasks more efficient.
In comparing several board portals, Aprio stood out for offering the right amount of functionality, competitive pricing and personal customer service.
“We wanted to find a board portal solution that offered the right amount of features without being too complicated or high-cost, with customer service we could count on,” explains Ferris, St. George’s Board Secretary and Governance Consultant. “We chose Aprio because it had the right functionality for the right price, and offered our board members personal customer service within the same time zone.”
The impact: convenient board materials, more efficient administration and improved board operations
After six years of using the Aprio board portal, the boards at St. George’s have secure, convenient access to all board information and materials in one place.
Aprio has also improved how the boards and committees function especially during board meetings. For Ferris, the board portal is used daily to help streamline board administration.
Key impacts of using Aprio’s board portal include:
Centralized access to all board information
Board materials and packages are conveniently accessed in one easy-to-access place, ensuring the volunteer boards are spending their time more efficiently and reducing director frustration.
Efficient board administration
Aprio makes board administration more efficient for St. George’s including scheduling meetings, creating agendas and board packages, conducting surveys and more. “Every feature in Aprio helps my day,” explains Ferris.
Improved board operations
St. George’s board members are now more organized and function better in meetings. They can easily find relevant documents or search for information as needed during meetings.
“Aprio is the board portal I recommend to every board. Boards simply function better with it. Every feature in Aprio helps my day in my role as a board secretary. One of the things I appreciate the most about Aprio is how fast I can create agendas and board packages, turning what used to be a 1 to 2-hour task into just 10 to 15 minutes.” – Claudia Ferris, Board Secretary for St. George’s School & Governance Consultant at Governance Matters Consulting Inc.
Opportunity for education boards
With over 20 years of experience in governance, corporate secretarial and regulatory compliance, Ferris has worked with several education and not-for-profit boards to support board governance and efficient operations.
Aprio is the board portal she consistently recommends including Crofton House, York House School, Vancouver Foundation, BC Unclaimed Property and Heritage Trust Company.
Aprio impact at St. George’s School – download the full case study
See the full story on how St. George’s School made the shift from email to the Aprio board portal to support strong governance and reduce frustration among board members. See the full case study.
