BoardPro Blog

Whether you’re a board member, CEO or administrator, you’ve undoubtedly run into this bugbear: A critical decision has come due and you want to refer to past discussions on the topic. You vaguely recall it was a bit contentious but your memory is a bit hazy and you can’t speak with any confidence on what was previously said. Where is that information? Where do you even start looking? It could be in the minutes of any number of meetings, it could be sitting in a supplementary paper… In all honesty, you don’t know where to begin!

‘Lost’ discussions is a pain point we often hear about. Hours wasted manually searching for that elusive document: Dropbox, Google Drive, emails, paper copies you have had filed away… somewhere? It’s a painstaking process and often ends without joy, or if you do find the relevant minutes you’re lucky if there’s sufficient detail to know what really happened.

Sadly, it looks like you’re going to be relitigating the argument all over again… Or are you? Here’s three steps for banishing the pain of searching for historical information.

Whether you’re a professional director on four boards or a volunteer making your first foray into governance on a small NFP board, you want to be given adequate time and resources to prepare well and contribute in board meetings. But that’s not always the case, is it?

"It’s so easy to use. It’s a very simple tool to put a lot of complex data into."
Head of Sales and Marketing at The Icehouse

With more than five years spent as a professional director, on four different boards, it’s fair to say Veronica Aris is well versed in the challenges boards face. So, when she first started using BoardPro at Blis Technologies in August 2017 she quickly saw the benefits it offered and became the driving force in getting three other boards she sat on to adopt the software too. In fact, one CEO was so impressed after getting a demo from Veronica, he’d already implemented BoardPro before she arrived back home that afternoon - impressive!

"I save up to two days work each month using boardPro"
Mark Eager, Chief Executive

Board management is now easier and more efficient at every step for Mark Eager, Chief Executive of Mobile Health NZ. Thanks to boardPro, he now saves up to two days of work every month preparing his board packs - that’s no mean feat. For Mark, who manages two boards as part of his role at Mobile Health, it’s invaluable.

"boardPro have simplified the process and helped make us look more professional too."
Chief Executive, Rural Health Alliance Aotearoa New Zealand

With a large team of board members (fourteen in total) and all of them living in various rural locations around New Zealand, remoteness is a major challenge for the Rural Health Alliance Aotearoa New Zealand (RHAANZ) board. Typically, they meet face-to-face only once or twice a year with meetings instead held via phone conference and, more recently, video conference.

A recording of one of most recent webinars, perfect for people unable to join our weekly live sessions.

Time is precious in a Board meeting. So many important discussions take place and you can’t remember them all. Sometimes, you’ll vaguely recall a discussion taking place but you don’t know when, nor what the outcome was. Other times, you’ll have no recollection at all - even though a fellow director is strongly indicating otherwise.

If you sit on boards, or run your own board meetings, BoardPro is a cloud-based software platform designed to instantly produce greater efficiencies and better governance. 

 The news out of one of New Zealand’s largest companies, Fletchers, points to problems with governance and oversight delivered by the board but it’s not just corporates that suffer from this. Small businesses also need to carefully consider how they’re going to manage governance if they’re to grow and prosper.

It’s not difficult to look like a dick at board meetings. 

In fact, looking back at the countless dozens of board meetings I’ve attended, it’s remarkably easy and happens all the time. It’s simple: just fail to do your action items from the last board meeting.