This August, the Directors and CEOs Leadership Convention is celebrating its 40th year providing inspiration and guidance to the credit union movement. Board members and executives from credit unions across the country will be gathering in Las Vegas to hear from renowned leadership speakers like Tim Harrington and credit union experts like Andrew Downin and Lynn Heckler. This year, the convention will be tackling some of the biggest challenges facing credit unions today, including membership growth, marketing to Millennials, cybersecurity, FinTech, and the future of lending.
There will also be plenty of exhibitors and vendors to learn from about new solutions, one of which is Aprio, a company that provides board portal software solutions. Their software has proven popular with credit unions in both the United States and Canada, used by boards of directors at major players like VanCity, Meridian, BlueShore Financial, and Hawaii State Federal Credit Union. While you’re at the Directors and CEOs Leadership Convention, take the time to learn about board of directors portal software from Aprio if you’re interested in transforming your organization’s board into a greater asset. Board portals are about improving efficiency, delivering equitable access to information, and practicing good governance.
How Can Your Credit Union Benefit from a Board Portal?
1. Convenience
Administrative staff and directors alike benefit from the convenience of using a board portal; admin can upload board books, financial reports, minutes, and any document relevant to upcoming meetings through the portal. Directors are instantly alerted by email, while last minute updates take effect immediately and are communicated in real time. If any director asks for an additional document, it can easily be made available to everyone. Fair and equal access to documents for all directors is a cornerstone of good governance; all directors should arrive at meetings equally prepared.
2. Collaboration
One of the features that makes a board portal like Aprio so different from email or file sharing is a unique set of tools that makes collaboration and work-between-meetings easy. Annotation tools allow directors to make private notes on documents or discuss them and collaborate with their peers. There are also voting, signing, and survey tools that allow boards to save time during meetings for strategic discussions.
3. Accountability
Administrative staff are also able to track who has accessed documents, such as training materials and meeting preparation. Another useful feature of a board portal that promotes accountability is expense tracking, where directors can instantly upload their expenses, generating an easy-to-reference report.
4. Support
Board portal technology has reached a stage where the technological features are largely similar across the industry – even security is comparable across price ranges. Vendors provide real value in the form of superior support at an affordable price range, including initial onboarding training and ongoing training when you bring on new directors and webinars that can keep you updated on new software features or efficiency tips.
5. Security
Lastly, but perhaps most importantly of all, board portals offer a level of security that file sharing and email cannot provide. In the finance industry, the documents shared at the board level, such as information about a potential borrower, must be kept confidential, and email is too easily compromised.
When you’re attending the Directors and CEO Leadership Convention in Las Vegas this year, don’t miss out on board portal vendors. Portal software can change the way your board conducts meetings.