Customer Stories

Eureka College

Eureka College uses OnBoard’s Productivity Suite to analyze meeting engagement and standardize meeting minutes, creating more effective, efficient board meetings.

Industry: Higher Education

Campus: Eureka, Illinois

Board Management Goals

Improve the user experience
Improve board engagement
Increase meeting productivity

OnBoard Capabilities

Productivity Suite
- Minutes Builder
- Engagement Analytics

Results

100% board member use
75% reduction in time it takes to create board minutes
40% increase in productivity over previous board management solution

A One-Stop Shop for All Board Matters

For four years, Eureka College has relied on the OnBoard board management platform. As Executive Administrative Assistant to the President and Provost, Jyl Zubiate uses OnBoard as the central repository for all board matters. This includes meeting committee assignments, meeting agendas, board books, minutes, schedules, bylaws, and any other information the board may need.

She also uses OnBoard for additional events that involve board members. “For instance,” she says, “for our opening convocation every year, I use OnBoard to invite local trustees. I know they’re more likely to respond through OnBoard than to regular email and it provides a convenient way for them to RSVP.”

The most productive aspect of Eureka College’s OnBoard experience, however, has leveraged the OnBoard Productivity Suite, including Engagement Analytics and the Minutes Builder.

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“With different people taking minutes for different meetings, they always came back in different formats. That doesn’t happen with Minutes Builder.”

— Jyl Zubiate
Executive Administrative Assistant to the President and Provost
Eureka College

More engaging material and a more engaged board

After a two-week test of the Productivity Suite, the board chair realized it could improve board member engagement and make meetings more productive. “He really liked the Engagement Analytics dashboard information,” Zubiate says. “It tells him who opened the board books, which parts they read, and which were opened most frequently.”

Knowing what materials board members engaged with helps Eureka identify topics of greater interest and better plan meetings. Of course, the Engagement Analytics dashboard also informs them if any board members have not engaged with materials prior to a meeting.

Reimagning Board Meeting Minutes

Zubiate credits the OnBoard Productivity Suite’s Minutes Builder with a 75% reduction in the time it takes her to prepare meeting minutes. Previously, she would record the meeting and later listen to the entire meeting again, slowly plucking information for the minutes. “I’d have to type in all the reports that each of the committee members gave,” she says.

The Minutes Builder pre-populates much of this information. “I can take fewer notes and pay more attention to what’s going on,” Zubiate says. “I just type a few notes in the Minutes Builder and push a button and there it is.”

Board members have unanimously praised the Minutes Builder format, especially since it automatically includes attachments, freeing them from constantly referring to attachments for this or that section. “And all the minutes are in the same format,” Zubiate says. “With different people taking minutes for different meetings, they always came back in different formats. That doesn’t happen with Minutes Builder.”

High Security, High Satisfaction

Zubiate easily maintains document confidentiality through strict access control. “If there is something for certain eyes only,” she says, “I can limit permissions for who can access it.

“For instance, some of our trustees were involved in new staff interviews for certain VP or dean-level candidates. I could upload the resumes and any other pertinent information and limit access to the interviewers only. No one else would be able to see it. That’s what I like about the permission feature. I can open it up to the whole board, limit it to certain committee members, or officers, or whoever needs access, locking out everyone else.”

According to Zubiate, there is “no comparison” between OnBoard and Eureka’s previous board management platform. In fact, she estimates a 40% overall efficiency gain over that product. In addition, the service experience is in another league.

“With the previous company, we would do a service ticket, and then it might be a day or two or three before they got back to us,” she says. “Now it is almost instantaneous. I haven’t had to do many service tickets at all, but when I have, somebody from OnBoard has gotten back to me almost immediately.”

Best Practices at the Board's Fingertips

OnBoard’s affiliation with the Association of Governing Boards (AGB) has proven an unexpected benefit. AGB resources are available within OnBoard, putting a wealth of valuable information at trustees’ fingertips, including articles and white papers on various aspects of board function and management.

“As new trustees join committees, I provide a very brief description of each committee, but the booklet from AGB provides in-depth information about being a member of this committee, what their work is, how it is laid out, and things that they should look at during various times of the year,” Zubiate says. “It’s at their fingertips; all they have to do is log in and click the resource.”

It’s indicative of how central OnBoard has become to the Eureka board that the last technology holdout came to Zubiate with his laptop for help in setting up the program. “I think it was everyone saying, ‘the information you need is on OnBoard and you need to learn how to use it,’” she surmises. “I think it was peer pressure more than anything else.”

Now, everyone on the Eureka Board benefits from the increased productivity, engagement, and convenience that OnBoard provides.

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