I think our board has gotten past the "gotta have it in my hands" stage and we are delivering all our board packets via a Google group. The board secretary gets the packet and runs it through a copy machine that will convert it to a PDF and then uploads it to the group and then sends out the email that the packet is there. The board room has laptops we use for board meetings and training and the board members download the packet and have it ready before the meeting. There are a few issues: - With using the copy machine to make the PDF the file it produces is not a "true" PDF and search feature in the reader will not work - Orientation is an issue with some documents. If we have a bid or a report that is part of the packet and it is in landscape, and everything else is in portrait then the board members either have to figure out how to rotate the page or just "tile their head". (I think there is more tilting going on there.)
I am not sure how well this is really going since I have not been to a board meeting lately. (I am thinking I am a bit of a mushroom - kept in the dark and fed crap. But a lot of people like mushrooms!) -----Original Message----- From: tech-geeks-boun...@tech-geeks.org [mailto:tech-geeks-boun...@tech-geeks.org] On Behalf Of Jason Livezey Sent: Saturday, September 18, 2010 6:53 PM To: Tech-Geeks Mailing List Subject: Re: [tech-geeks] Digital Board Book We have had not a problem with the technology, but with the board members themselves only wanting a paper copy. How has anyone got past the human factor of this problem? JL Sent from my iPhone On Sep 17, 2010, at 8:41 AM, JimHays <hay...@sages.us> wrote: > We're using DocMan on Joomla. The secretaries and principals post the PDF files and the board members download them with their laptops. We post the separate documents for them to pull up during the meetings if needed and also post the entire packet as a single PDF that they can download ahead of time. All of our board members use their own personal laptops. By using PDFs we don't worry about compatibility issues, etc. > > We are in our third year of this and it is working well for us. > > But the idea of using iPads or Android tablets for this is intriguing. Either would work well with our setup. > > > > Tom Donovan wrote: >> We started this fall with iPads. The app we're using is ReaddleDocs, >> which I set up to connect to our secure WebDAV share (Mac OSX Server) >> to pull down PDFs of the materials. It allows sticky-note style >> note-taking as well as highlighting. >> >> The one non-negotiable was going electronic with the packet, and at >> the moment, after two or three meetings, only one board member is >> asking for the PDFs to be emailed rather than pulling them down to the >> iPad. I'll be checking in with the members to get some specific >> feedback, but so far things seem to be working well enough. >> >> - Tom >> >> On Thursday, September 16, 2010, Jared Lynn <jl...@porta202.org> wrote: >> >>> This subject has been brought up before but I wanted to revisit the topic to see what most districts are doing. >>> >>> What is your opinion of using a digital board book? >>> What methods have you looked at/use? (Do you email them, provide them with laptops or iPads, etc?) >>> What applications are you using to display the book? >>> >>> To me, a tablet device seems to be the way to go because users know how to use their fingers. With that being said, I'm ruling out the netbook because I don't want to deal with the headaches that might possibly be associated with giving them a full blown computer. Therefore, I'm looking at a Android based or iPad device that will do the simplest task... Display board minutes.... If I'm going with a tablet, what app would be best used to not only display the report but also allow them to jot notes on it? I'm hesitant to give them an app that would require them to type... Many of them would be much faster simply writing it down with their finger. >>> >>> You Stay Classy Internet >>> Thanks, >>> Jared Lynn >>> PORTA CUSD #202 Technology Coordinator >>> Email: jl...@porta202.org >>> Phone: 217-501-4920 >>> >>> >> >> >> > > | Subscription info at http://www.tech-geeks.org | | Subscription info at http://www.tech-geeks.org | | Subscription info at http://www.tech-geeks.org |
