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Susan Sterne |
The board of the Sentinel Funds is moving to iPads and doing away with all paper board materials. Currently, the board has a director’s only website that holds all of the materials but as of the June meeting they will all be on the iPad 2 as well, according to Susan Sterne, independent director. Sterne told FD that using the iPad will save money as well as make it easier to transport board materials.
“All of the costs of the iPads for the whole [seven-member] board [are] less than the cost of a year of the printing, binding and sending out of the board materials,” Sterne said. The Sentinel board had been looking into the use of electronic readers for a while but the directors were waiting for the capabilities to advance and everyone to come on board before making the switch. Other boards have also been eyeing iPads recently as major vendors such as BoardVantage and Diligent Board Member Services have released applications on iTunes for board materials (FD, February).
Sterne said the board had spoken with Diligent but chose not to go with a board book company because there was already an e-book on its website. The directors are also planning a lesson before the June meeting to make sure everyone understands how to use the software properly. Sterne added that the only concerns involved security issues, but that those can come up with paper materials as well.