America First Credit Union (AFCU) provides personal financial services of superior quality to its members and owners. It is the 7th largest credit union in terms of membership and 12th largest in terms of asset size in the US.
Thayne Shaffer, Senior Vice President and Controller at America First Credit Union, shares how the Convene board portal has helped the credit union achieve better security and faster communication in their meetings.
“When America First purchased iPads for senior management and board members, we moved from an old-fashioned model of sending paper packets, to e-mailing a PDF file of various documents. However, we quickly learned that not everyone was on the same page from a functionality perspective, as there were different versions of meeting packets received (some were updated, while others were not) and that was a challenge in our board meetings,” he says when their board tried to use devices for their board meetings.
He further notes how, “The board also used different PDF viewing apps, which made consistency difficult. The one we tried before didn’t fulfill our need to have a consistent viewer that was compatible with all devices. As a document repository, it fell short of meeting functionalities, like marking up documents. Finally, the credit union President, who was exposed to meeting solutions as a member of another board, prompted us to look for an option that best suited the needs of America First.”
Best for the Value
Thayne stated, “In our search for finding the right option for America First, we shortlisted five meeting solutions, but Convene easily came out on the top after we factored in the cost. With its highly efficient board portal for iPad, Android, Windows, and Mac, Convene was a clear winner, offering great value for comprehensive features, such as ADFS, intuitive design and stringent security.”
Convene helped to streamline their board meeting processes to save time and money. “Security is the utmost priority for us and e-mail is not a secure enough option. With Convene, we received centralized access allowing all files to be viewed without leaving the application and customized access so we retained full control of who could view which meetings and documents,” he says when talking about security for their boardroom.
Drag and Drop Feature
He also elaborated on the experience of his colleagues, “Our financial accountant, Allyson Jorgensen, is an administrative user, utilizing the software mainly to build meeting packets and schedule upcoming meetings. Features she particularly finds convenient and helpful are the change notifications, user access customization, and agenda builder. She no longer needs to convert the documents; she simply drags and drops them to create packets. She also likes the fact she can see who amongst the members has access to the packets, adding another layer of security e-mails just can’t provide.”
Great User Experience
Thayne also shared that using one platform—Convene—streamlined their workflows and collaborations. The credit union’s committees were also pleased with the notifications feature of the board portal which enables them to get alerted whenever files are updated.
Thayne ended the interview saying, “In that sense, Convene doesn’t feel like a completely new technology to us. In fact, our board and committee members of all ages learned their way around Convene within an hour of using it on their own devices. Convene’s cross-platform feature really propelled us forward, providing employees and board members the freedom to use the device they’re most comfortable using on a day-to-day basis.”