Fridays recently got a lot easier for Shari Malespin. In the bad old days, this administrative assistant for the governing board at Grant Joint Union School District spent hours at the print shop duplicating and assembling 60 double-sided, double-stapled copies of the district’s agenda packet. She ended the day driving around town to deliver bulky packets to school board members.

“Agenda Online has made a huge difference to me,” Malespin said. “Fridays were stressful; the packet took all day.”

But that was before the district went paperless, subscribing to CSBA’s Agenda Online electronic board meeting agenda service. Since Grant launched the service last fall, school board members and other district managers can access their agenda materials electronically on their home or office computers.

Agenda Online can help districts and county offices of education save thousands of dollars on paper, photocopying and postage; streamline district communications; free employees from once-tedious copying, collating and delivery jobs and make it easier for board members to do their jobs.

Grant board member Linda Thompson has nothing but praise for the service. “I especially like the easy access,” she said. “I can take a break at work, go online and study the agenda. I don’t have to lug supporting documents and other paperwork around with me.”

Thompson said Agenda Online also makes for smoother board meetings. “I bring my laptop to meetings and keep the agenda cover sheet on my screen. During the meeting if I need to refer to something, I can click on the link. It’s less disruptive than leafing through a thick binder.”

Despite all the obvious advantages of going paperless, the shift from conventional to electronic agendas can be difficult in the beginning. But those who have made the switch say they’re glad they did.

“It took a little while to get used to reading documents online and making notes online, but once I understood what could be done with the software, I found the method to be great,” said Karen Leong Clancy, a board member with the Belmont-Redwood Shores Elementary School District and a member of CSBA’s Delegate Assembly.

Clancy said keeping her records online makes it easier to file and access documents. “I appreciate the fact that the board agendas are archived so that I can look at past agendas without trying to recover the paper,” she said. “We have saved reams of paper by going to this method. Also, background information can be added easily without worrying about how to distribute new documents to the board.”

CSBA, in partnership with Apple Computer, piloted the program in 2004 in a number of districts, including Belmont-Redwood Shores and Sylvan Union.

Besides storing and delivering agendas and background material electronically, Agenda Online also includes templates for creating meetings and agenda items; staff members can review, edit and submit agenda item material electronically. Subscription costs are based on district or county office average daily attendance.

“Agenda Online has been a really big stress reducer for me,” said Marilyn Sanchez, assistant to the superintendent at Belmont-Redwood Shores. Sanchez said she finds the program developers have added new features in the two years since her district piloted the service, that make Agenda Online even easier to use. “We’ve had four or five districts come through for a demonstration,” she said. “I like showing people how easy this is to use.”

CSBA Immediate Past President Dr. Kerry Clegg’s Sulphur Springs Union Elementary School District has also taken Agenda Online on the road. Sulphur Springs staff recently demonstrated Agenda Online for members of the Santa Clarita Valley School Trustees Association and the local community college. “They were very impressed with what it could do,” Clegg said, adding that Agenda Online has helped administrative support staff prepare agenda items more efficiently.

Dianna Parker, CSBA’s Director for Governance Technology, said once board members and staff become familiar with the technology, they can see the advantages of electronic agendas. She recalls getting this comment from one district administrator: “She called and said, ‘I’m having fun with this, is that O.K.?’”

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See how Agenda Online works